How to Play Golf Solitaire
Golf gives you 7 columns of cards and a single pile to clear them onto. A card can go on the pile when it is one rank above or below the card showing there, in any suit, and most people pick that up in a minute. Winning is harder because of two rules. The ranks never loop from King around to Ace, and once a King lands on the pile, nothing more can go on it until you draw from the stock.
Clearing the 7 columns
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.
Seven columns of 5 cards
Deal 35 cards face up in 7 columns of 5. Turn another card onto the waste and keep the remaining 16 as the stock. Tableau ranks are visible, but only the exposed end of each column can move. The stock stays face down until drawn, so you can plan the column order without knowing every future waste card.
Playing onto the waste
Move the exposed card from a column onto the waste when it is exactly one rank above or below the waste top. A 9 accepts an 8 or 10 in any suit. The moved card becomes the new waste top. Kings are an exception: nothing can be played onto a King in this version.
The two rules that make Golf hard
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 2 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. A King in a column can still be played onto a Queen, but it ends the run the moment it lands.
The stock
When no useful column card fits, draw a stock card onto the waste. There are 16 draws and no redeal. A King on the waste requires a draw before play can continue, unless you have already cleared the last tableau card and won.
Why Golf is a hard game
Golf is one of the harder solitaires to clear completely. In a computer study of many solitaire games, Charlie Blake and Ian Gent found that 45.11% of Golf deals without the King-Ace wrap can be cleared, and that figure is for a computer that knows the order of the stock in advance (The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games). A player turning stock cards blind will clear fewer. Having every column card face up does help, since you can map a line the way you might read a chess position, but the missing wrap and the halting Kings leave very little slack.
Scoring and the name
The name comes from the traditional scoring. A full game of Golf is 9 deals, called holes. After each hole you score 1 point for every card still left in the columns, and if you clear the columns completely, you subtract 1 point for each card still in the stock. As in real golf, the lowest total after 9 holes wins. Easier versions let a Queen go on a King or allow the King-Ace wrap.
This site scores each deal on its own. Every card you clear from the columns is worth 10 points and drawing from the stock costs nothing, so a cleared table scores 350.
Playing well
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. Pick the cards that keep a chain alive over the first legal card that catches your eye.
Don't empty a column for its own sake
Taking the last card from a column leaves one fewer card to clear, but an empty Golf column is no use as storage, because nothing can be moved into it. When comparing two moves, prefer the one that removes more cards or exposes a rank you need.
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
You get 16 draws for the whole board. Treat each one as a small cost you pay to get unstuck, and check the columns once more before you turn a card.
Lean on undo to read the deal
With every column card on view, it is worth following a line, watching where it jams and using Undo to step back and test a different one.
Black Hole Solitaire is Golf's closest open-table relative. It uses the same one-rank move but deals every remaining card into 17 visible fans, has no stock and lets Kings connect with Aces. The result depends on fan order instead of deciding when to draw.
Common questions
How many cards are in Golf solitaire?
Golf uses a single 52-card deck. The deal puts 35 cards in 7 columns of 5 and one card on the waste, which leaves 16 in the stock.
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?
Yes. Even a computer that knows every card in advance can clear only about 45% of deals in this no-wrap form, and a player drawing blind does worse. Every Winnable deal on the site has a known solution, so a stuck game usually means an earlier choice went wrong. How we check that a deal can be won.
What is the difference between Golf and TriPeaks?
They share the one-rank move, but two things separate them. TriPeaks deals its cards as 3 peaks and lets the ranks wrap from King to Ace. Golf lays out 7 columns, refuses the wrap and stops on Kings, which makes it a good deal harder.