Golf Solitaire is a single-player patience game where the goal is simple: clear the seven columns of the tableau by playing each top card onto a waste pile, one rank at a time, up or down, regardless of suit. Like its namesake sport, it’s scored with a nine-deal round and a lower total beats a higher one.
It rewards planning more than most solitaires because every card in the tableau starts face-up. You can see the whole course before your first shot, but the 16-card stock and the ban on refilling empty columns mean one careless move ends a hole fast.
How the Golf Solitaire Layout Works
Golf uses a standard 52-card deck with no Jokers, dealt into three distinct areas.
The Tableau
Deal seven columns of five cards each, all face-up, slightly overlapping so you can read every rank. This is the “course” — 35 cards in total, and only the bottom card of each column (the one nearest you) is in play at any moment.
The Foundation (Waste Pile)
Flip one card from the remaining deck and place it face-up below the tableau. This is your starting foundation card, sometimes called the waste pile. Every card you remove from the tableau is stacked on top of it, and only the current top card matters for play.
The Stock
The remaining 16 cards go face-down as the stock. You’ll turn these over one at a time whenever you can’t — or don’t want to — make a tableau play. There is no redeal: once the stock is empty, the hand is over.
The Rules of Play
The mechanic that defines Golf Solitaire is the one-rank-up-or-down play. Suits don’t matter at all, which is what makes the game feel quick compared to Klondike or Spider.
Moving Cards to the Foundation
On your turn, look at the seven tableau cards currently at the bottom of each column. You may move any one of them onto the foundation pile if its rank is exactly one higher or one lower than the current foundation card.
If the foundation shows a 7, you can play a 6 or an 8 on top of it. From that 8 you could then play a 7 or a 9, and so on. Once a card is removed, the card above it in that column becomes the new bottom card and is available.
Kings Are Dead Ends
In standard Golf, the sequence does not wrap. An Ace may only be played on a 2, and a King is a stopper — nothing can be played on top of a King. When a King lands on the foundation, you must draw from the stock before you can continue.
Drawing From the Stock
When you can’t (or choose not to) make a tableau play, turn the top card of the stock face-up onto the foundation. It becomes the new target card. You can draw through the stock only once.
Empty Columns Stay Empty
A column you’ve cleared stays empty for the rest of the deal. Nothing is dealt into it. This is easy to forget if you’re coming from Klondike, and it’s the single biggest tactical difference in the game.
Scoring a Round of Golf Solitaire
Golf is scored across nine deals, mirroring a round of golf.
Counting Each Hole
At the end of a deal, your score for that hole equals the number of cards still left in the tableau. Clearing the whole tableau before your stock runs out scores zero, and some rulebooks allow a negative score — one under par per leftover stock card — if you finish early.
Par and the Full Round
Add the nine hole scores together for your round total. Par is traditionally set at 45 (five per hole), and anything under that is a strong game. A total of 35 or less is excellent; a total in the 20s is rare and worth remembering.
Strategy: Playing the Tableau Like a Course
Because every tableau card is visible from the first move, Golf is a game of foresight. The cards don’t change — only the order in which you touch them does.
Read the Columns Before You Play
Before your first move, look for sequences you can build. If the foundation is a 7 and you can see 6-5-4-3 sitting as top cards across the tableau, play them in order and you’ve cleared four cards with a single draw. Chains like this are the difference between a 2 and an 8 on that hole.
Protect Access to Buried Cards
The top card of each column blocks everything above it. If you can see that the second card from the bottom is a 5, and the bottom card is a 4 while the foundation shows a 3, playing the 4 first opens the 5 for another play. Always ask whether removing a card unlocks a better one underneath.
Respect the Kings
Kings end the sequence in standard rules, which means a King that sits on top of a valuable card effectively locks that card away until you play the King itself. Try to play Kings early, when you have a Queen available, so you don’t strand the cards behind them.
Don’t Chase Empty Columns
In many solitaires, an empty column is a weapon. In Golf, it isn’t — nothing can be moved into it. Clearing a column is still progress, but it’s not worth sacrificing a chain of three or four plays elsewhere to do it.
Use the Stock Last
Every stock card you turn is a move you can’t take back. If there are still productive tableau plays, make them before you draw. The stock is a tie-breaker for dead positions, not a main line of play.
Popular Variants
Golf has a healthy family of variants that either ease the difficulty or shake up the pace.
Wrap-Around (Putt Putt) Golf
Also called “turning the corner,” this variant lets Kings play on Aces and Aces play on Kings, so the sequence loops continuously. It makes the game noticeably easier and is the default rule on many digital apps. If your home copy has you stuck every time a King appears, try this version.
Queens on Kings
A lighter fix that keeps the standard no-wrap rule but allows Queens to be placed on Kings. This unsticks the most common dead-end without fully rewriting the sequence.
Relaxed Golf With a Head Start
Instead of flipping a random first foundation card, you choose which exposed tableau card becomes the starting foundation. It doesn’t change the deck, but it gives you a planned opening move and often sets up a long first chain.
Wild Cards and Double Golf
Some house variants add one or two Jokers as wild cards that match any rank. Double Golf uses two 52-card decks, a bigger tableau, and usually wrap-around rules — it’s a slower, more forgiving game well-suited to long evenings.
Related Golf-Family Games
If you enjoy the rank-up-or-down mechanic but want a different shape, Tri Peaks uses a pyramid-style tableau, Pyramid Golf (Escalator) stacks the tableau into a staircase, and Black Hole plays from a full circle of seventeen face-up piles. They’re close cousins and feel familiar after a few deals of standard Golf.
Playing Golf Solitaire Online and on Apps
Golf is well-represented on free solitaire sites and mobile apps, and most default to either standard or wrap-around rules with a toggle in settings. Digital versions score automatically and often offer a nine-hole “round” mode that matches the traditional scoring.
If you’re playing with physical cards, grab a scorecard or a piece of paper, play nine deals in a row, and total your result. It’s the closest the card room gets to a round on the back nine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you play two cards in a row from the tableau?
Yes. As long as each card you move is exactly one rank higher or lower than the current foundation card, you can keep chaining tableau plays without drawing from the stock. Long chains are how you beat par.
What happens when a King lands on the foundation?
In standard Golf Solitaire, a King is a stopper — no card can be played on top of it. You must draw the next card from the stock to continue. Wrap-around variants (Putt Putt) let you play an Ace on a King, which removes this dead end.
Can you refill empty tableau columns?
No. Once a column is cleared, it stays empty for the rest of the deal, and neither the stock nor other tableau cards can be moved into it. This is the rule that most often catches new players who are used to Klondike.
Can you go through the stock more than once?
No. The 16 stock cards are dealt once, face-down, and turned over one at a time. When the last one is played, the hand ends — you count the cards still in the tableau and score that many points for the hole.
Is Golf Solitaire winnable every deal?
No. Because the entire tableau is visible but the stock is hidden, some deals are mathematically unwinnable from the start. Serious players treat the nine-hole round as the real game rather than trying to clear every individual deal.