Golf Solitaire

How to play

1. How does a game of Golf solitaire start?: The page opens on a dealt game: 35 cards in seven columns of five, all face up, with the outermost card of each column exposed and playable. The other 16 cards sit face down in the stock, and one card is already turned onto the waste pile. On a phone held upright the seven columns lie on their side as seven rows, and the last card of each row is the one you can play.
2. How do you play a card?: Look at the top of the waste pile and tap an exposed card one higher or one lower. It flies onto the waste and becomes the new top card. Suits don't matter; Ace is 1, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13. Only a 2 goes on an Ace, and nothing at all goes on a King. Playable cards glow pink; tap one that doesn't fit and it shakes while the status line tells you what's needed.
3. When should you draw from the stock?: When nothing on the tableau fits, tap the stock at the bottom left to turn its top card onto the waste, then keep playing from that card. The stock goes through once and can't be turned back. With a King on the waste you must draw. Drawing is always allowed, but it ends your streak, so play everything you can first.
4. How are strokes counted?: Your score for the hole is the number of cards still on the tableau: you start at 35 and every card you play takes one off, so lower is better. Clear all seven columns and every card still in the stock counts another −1, which is how you finish under zero. If the stock runs out with nothing to play, the hole ends on however many cards are left.
5. What if you get stuck?: The hint button lights up one playable card, or points at the stock when nothing fits. Undo is unlimited and free, even across draws. When you're truly stuck the results show the waste card, what it needed and which cards were showing — and whether this deal could have been cleared at all, so you know if it's worth undoing and trying another line.

Rules & variants

Golf solitaire basics: one 52-card deck, no jokers. Deal 35 cards into seven columns of five, all face up; the outermost card of each column is exposed. The remaining 16 cards form a face-down stock, and the last beat of the deal turns one card onto the waste pile. The goal is to move all 35 tableau cards onto the waste.

Playing cards: any exposed card that is exactly one rank above or below the waste card can be played onto it — suits don't matter. Ace counts 1, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13. Aces and Kings don't wrap: only a 2 goes on an Ace, and nothing goes on a King, not even a Queen. That dead end is the defining rule of classic Golf: once a King lands on the waste, the only move is to draw.

The stock: tap it to turn its top card onto the waste. Drawing is legal at any time, even when a card on the tableau would fit. The stock goes through once — there's no redeal, no reserve cell and no wild card. Think of the stock as your budget: when its 16 cards are gone and nothing fits, the hole is over.

Scoring in strokes: your score for the hole is the number of cards left on the tableau — 35 at the start, lower is better. Clear the tableau and your score becomes minus the cards left in the stock, so clearing with 4 stock cards unused scores −4. Streaks (consecutive plays) are feedback only and don't change the score; the streak readout celebrates at 5, 10 and 15.

Nine-hole rounds: play nine random deals in a row like a scorecard. Each hole is written into its box the moment it ends, and par is 45 (five per hole). A clear scores automatically; when stuck you can undo or simply take the strokes and move on to the next hole. After nine holes you see your total and how far under, level or over par you finished.

Winnable deals and deal numbers: by default a new game walks forward from a random deal number to the first one the solver proves can be cleared, and the badge says Winnable. Switch it off for traditional unfiltered random deals; the badge still follows the solver, so a random deal that happens to be clearable still says Winnable, and only deals the solver hasn't proven say Random. The same deal number is always the same cards, so you can copy the game link and play the same deal as a friend.

Variants and house rules: other versions let Aces and Kings wrap, allow a Queen on a King, start with an empty waste so you pick the first card, add jokers, deal some cards face down or let the stock go around more than once. This game plays the classic rules above — no wrap, nothing on a King, first waste card dealt, everything face up, one pass through the stock — with no rule switches.

Golf solitaire strategy: ① look two or three moves ahead and pick the card that keeps a run going; ② when two exposed cards share a rank, take the one that uncovers something useful underneath; ③ get Kings out of the columns, but play them at the end of a run, because a King on the waste is a dead end; ④ runs can turn around (5-4-3-2-3), so don't only climb or only fall; ⑤ play everything before you draw — every stock card you save is a stroke off.

Common beginner mistakes: drawing while a playable card is still on the tableau; treating the King like it accepts a Queen or an Ace; working one column to the bottom and missing a longer run elsewhere; and giving up on a random deal without checking — the results tell you whether the deal could ever have been cleared.

An example: the waste shows 6♣ and column 1 ends in 5♥. Play it and your strokes drop from 35 to 34; column 1 now shows 4♣, so play that and then 3♥ for a streak of 3. Tapping an exposed 9♠ now is refused with “Needs 2 or 4”, because the waste is a 3. When nothing else fits, draw — the streak readout sums up the run you just made.

FAQ