Play Golf solitaire

Golf is a short, open patience game: seven columns of face-up cards and a single waste pile, which you clear by playing cards one rank higher or lower than the waste card. As in golf, the lower your score the better. Deal Golf now and play right here, free, with no account and no money.

Your round in progress is saved automatically in your browser, and Golf keeps its own statistics: rounds played, rounds won, best time and fewest moves for wins.

How to win

Clear all 35 cards from the seven columns onto the waste. Your score is the number of cards left in the columns, so a cleared table scores 0 and counts as a win.

Rules

The layout

• One 52-card deck is used.
• Seven columns of five face-up cards each, 35 cards in total.
• One card starts the waste. The other 16 cards form the stock.

Playing cards

• Move the top card of any column to the waste if it is exactly one rank higher or lower than the top waste card. Suits do not matter.
• There is no wrap-around: a King and an Ace are not neighbours.
• Nothing may be played on a King. A King can still be played from a column onto a Queen, but after that you must draw.
• Draw turns the next stock card onto the waste. There is no recycling.

Score and end of the round

• Score = cards left in the columns. Lower is better.
• Won: all 35 column cards cleared.
• Lost: the stock is empty and no column card can be played.
• Starting a new deal before the end counts the unfinished round as abandoned.

Controls

• Tap or click the top card of a column, then tap the waste; or drag the card onto the waste.
• Draw (D) turns the next stock card onto the waste.
• Hint (H) highlights one legal move without making it; Auto move (A) plays the move the hint would show.
• Undo (U) is unlimited, right back to the deal. New deal is N.
• Keyboard: Tab moves between piles, Enter or Space selects and places, Esc cancels a selection.

Tips

1. Plan the whole sequence. Every column card is face up from the start, so you can trace a run such as 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5 across several columns before you touch a card. Looking two or three cards ahead is often the difference between clearing a column and getting stuck.
2. Treat Kings as full stops. Nothing can be played on a King, so playing one always ends your current run and forces a draw. Play a King when it uncovers a card you need, ideally when you would have to draw anyway.
3. Aces are almost as awkward. Without wrap-around, the only card that can follow an Ace is a 2, and an Ace can only leave its column onto a 2. Free Aces when a 2 is on the waste, or you may not get another chance.
4. Choose the branch that keeps going. With a 6 on the waste and both a 5 and a 7 available, count how far each direction can run before you choose.
5. Ration the stock. You have just 16 draws and no recycling. Draw only when no column card can be played, so you keep cards in hand for the end of the round.
6. Dig into long blockages. If one column holds several cards that do not fit your usual runs, prioritise it early while the stock still has plenty of cards to help.
7. Play every round to the end. Even when a clear table is out of reach, each extra card you remove lowers your score.

Find more card terms in the glossary, or see how Golf sits next to the other games on the compare page.

Related games

• TriPeaks uses the same one-up-or-down rule, but King and Ace wrap round and some cards start face down.
• Pyramid is another quick game where you clear a layout using the stock and waste.
• Klondike Draw 1 is the classic seven-column solitaire if you fancy a longer game.