How to Play Golf Solitaire
The move in Golf could not be simpler. You have 7 columns of cards and a single pile to clear them onto, and a card crosses over whenever it sits one rank above or below whatever is showing on that pile. Most people understand it in a minute. Winning is the hard part, and it comes down to 2 quiet rules. The sequence never loops from King back round to Ace, and the moment a King lands on the pile, everything stops until you draw from the stock. Those 2 limits are what make a layout this simple so stubborn to clear, and working around them is the whole game.
The goal
The win is plain to state: get every card out of the 7 columns. All 35 of them have to go onto the pile at the side, and the instant the last column empties the game is yours. The stock you draw from does not have to be used up, and nothing is built up into foundations here. There is only the one pile you keep feeding, a card at a time, until the table is bare.
How the table is dealt
Golf lays the whole deck out as a tidy grid. Thirty five cards go down face up in 7 columns of 5, each card overlapping the one above so every face stays readable. That leaves 17 cards spare. One of them is turned straight onto the pile to start things off, and the last 16 sit face down as the stock. Since the entire layout is in plain sight from the start, nothing in a Golf deal is concealed; the difficulty lives entirely in the order you choose to take the cards.
The one move you make
There is a single kind of move in Golf, repeated over and over until the board clears or your options dry up. You take the lowest card of any column, the one no other card covers, and drop it on the pile when its rank sits right next to the rank already on top. Next to means one higher or one lower, with suit playing no part, so onto a nine you can drop an eight or a ten in any suit. The card you just played becomes the new top of the pile, and you continue from there with whatever card fits next.
The 2 rules that define Golf
Everything so far sounds gentle, and it would be, were it not for 2 limits that give Golf its real character.
The sequence does not wrap
In some games the ranks form a circle, with the Ace treated as a neighbor of the King, but that is not the case in Golf. The Ace is the very bottom of the line and the King is the very top, and the two do not connect. Land on an Ace and only a two can carry on, land on a King and the line has nowhere to go at all. This is the single biggest thing dividing Golf from its close cousin TriPeaks, where the loop does exist and makes the game far more forgiving.
A King halts the pile
The moment a King reaches the top of the pile, the run is finished. Nothing may be laid on a King, not even the Queen you might think should follow, so a King always forces you to turn a fresh card from the stock. Kings are the great spoilers of the game. One stuck at the base of a column will only shift onto a Queen, and once it lands it freezes the pile, which makes Kings awkward to be rid of and awkward to handle once they arrive.
The stock
When no column is offering a card that fits, you turn the top of the stock onto the pile. It hands you a new rank to work from and usually shakes a move or two loose. The catch is the size of it. There are only 16 stock cards, and once they have gone you cannot turn them back to run through a second time. Sixteen turns is not much against 35 cards to clear, so the stock is better seen as a short run of rescues than a reserve you can keep dipping into. Work the columns first, and keep the draws for the moments you are truly stuck.
Why Golf is a hard game
Golf has a reputation as one of the tougher solitaires, and the figures bear it out. Played as it is here, without the wrap, only a slim share of random deals can be brought all the way down, which is why scoring versions of the game often just tally how few cards you finish with rather than asking for a clean board. Having every card face up does help, since a careful player can map a route the way you might read a chess position, yet the missing wrap and the halting Kings leave very little slack. The deals here are certified, each one checked through to a finish before it reaches you, so unlike a raw shuffle the deal you are playing genuinely can be cleared, and a loss falls on the line you picked rather than the cards. The broader matter of which deals can be solved is taken up in is solitaire winnable.
Playing well
A few habits give you the best shot at an empty board.
Map the long runs first
Before you move a card, search for the longest chain of one rank steps you can make from the pile as it stands now. Choosing the cards that keep a chain alive, instead of the first legal card to catch your eye, is most of what good Golf comes down to.
Clear a column right out when you can
Taking a column down to nothing is solid progress, because those 5 cards are gone for good and the columns around it grow easier to read. When 2 lines are open to you, the one that finishes off a column is usually worth more.
Plan around the Kings
Find them early and work with them in mind. A King moves only onto a Queen and then locks the pile behind it, so it pays to know where each King is and to have a Queen ready for it before you are forced to draw past the problem.
Guard the stock
With just 16 turns for the whole board, every draw you go without is one you still hold in reserve. Treat turning a card as a small cost you pay to get unstuck, never a move you make on autopilot.
Lean on undo to read the deal
With nothing hidden, it is worth following a line, watching where it jams and stepping back to test a different one. The cards do not move on their own, so the only thing between you and a clear board is finding the order that works.
Common questions
How many cards are in Golf solitaire?
The full pack of 52. Thirty five are dealt face up into 7 columns of 5, one is turned onto the pile to begin, and the remaining 16 form the stock you draw from.
Can you play a King on an Ace in Golf?
No. The ranks do not loop, so the Ace and the King sit at opposite ends of the line and never meet. On top of that a King stops the pile the moment it lands, so nothing at all can be played onto one.
Is Golf solitaire hard to win?
In this no wrap form, yes, it ranks among the tougher solitaires, and many random deals cannot be cleared in full. The games dealt here are confirmed solvable ahead of play, though, so the deal you are looking at does have a route through, as long as you can find the order it needs.
What is the difference between Golf and TriPeaks?
They use the same one rank move, but 2 things separate them. TriPeaks deals its cards as 3 peaks and lets the ranks wrap from King to Ace, which makes most deals winnable. Golf lays out 7 columns, refuses the wrap and halts on Kings, which makes it a good deal harder.