How to play Golf solitaire

Rules in short: deal seven columns of five cards, all face up, and turn one card to start the waste pile. Move the bottom card of any column onto the waste if it is one rank higher or lower, in any suit. When nothing fits, turn the next stock card. The aim is to clear all 35 column cards. Your score is the number of cards left, like strokes in golf, so lower is better.

Setup Playing a card Kings and aces The stock Scoring Example How often can you clear it? Strategy Variations FAQ

Setup

Shuffle and deal seven columns of five cards each, face up and overlapping so you can see every card. Turn the next card face up to start the waste pile, and keep the last 16 cards face down as the stock.

Playing a card

Only the bottom (uncovered) card of each column can move. Play it onto the waste if it is exactly one rank higher or lower than the top waste card, whatever its suit. It becomes the new waste card, so you can chain plays: 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5. A column that empties stays empty; there is no building on the columns.

Kings and aces

In the classic game aces are low only: a 2 goes on an ace and a queen on a king, but a king and an ace are not neighbors. Easier versions let them wrap around (Q-K-A-2). On Snug Table, Classic is the default and Easy turns the wrap on.

The stock

Turn the top stock card onto the waste whenever you like; it becomes the new card to play on. The stock goes through once only. When the stock is empty and no column card fits, the deal is over.

Scoring like golf

• Every card left in the columns at the end counts as one stroke.
• If you clear all seven columns, each stock card you didn't need counts as a stroke under par: clear with 4 stock cards left and you score −4.
• A round is nine deals, called holes. Add the scores; the lowest total wins.

On Snug Table the scorecard keeps your nine holes, and the daily course gives everyone the same nine deals so you can compare totals.

An example

How often can you clear Golf?

Not often by luck alone. With the classic rules our solver, which knows the order of the face-down stock, cleared at least 36% of 2,782 deals and proved 22% impossible; the rest hit its search limit. With the king-ace wrap it cleared at least 88% of 570 deals.

A player can't see the stock, which makes a big difference. A simple strategy that always plays the longest run it can see in the columns cleared only 3.4% of 1,500 classic deals and averaged 6.6 cards left (about 59 for nine holes). With the wrap it cleared 23.5% and averaged 2.3. That is why a single clear is worth celebrating, and why Winnable deals on Snug Table only gives you shuffles our solver has cleared.

Golf solitaire strategy

• Count the run before you start. Every card is face up: trace how far each starting card can carry you, and how many cards each run uncovers.
• Work the tall columns. Taking cards from columns that are still five deep uncovers more choices than finishing a short one.
• Mind the kings. In the classic game a king on the waste can only be followed by a queen. Play a king when you have a queen ready, or when it is the last card you can play anyway.
• Don't waste stock cards. There are only 16. Play every column card you usefully can before turning one.
• Keep connectors. A 7 that could follow either a 6 or an 8 is more useful later than a card with only one possible neighbor left.

On Snug Table the hint shows a move that still clears the layout, and when a hole goes wrong the coach review finds the exact move after which it could no longer be cleared.

Variations

• Wrap: K and A connect (Easy on Snug Table).
• Nothing on a king: some books stop the run on a king entirely; only a new stock card can follow it.
• Putt: a two-deck cousin with eight columns; Black Hole uses a central ace of spades as the waste.
• Related games: TriPeaks uses the same one-up, one-down rule with three overlapping peaks and face-down cards.