Golf Solitaire Variations: Wrap Around, Queens on Kings

Golf has been played at kitchen tables for about a hundred years, and in that time families have bent the rules in several directions. Nearly all of the changes concern the two ends of the deck, the King and the Ace, because that is where the standard game is strictest. This page explains the house rules you can switch on in our Golf Solitaire game, a few others you may have met, and the close relatives of Golf.

House Rules in Our Game

Open Settings and look under House rules. A change takes effect with your next deal, and your statistics are kept separately for each way of playing, so an easy rule never flatters your record under the strict one.

The Standard Game: Nothing on a King

With both house rules switched off you are playing Golf as the rule books give it. Aces are low, Kings are high, and the ranks do not join up. A King may be played on a Queen, but nothing may be played on a King: you must turn a card from the deck. Only a 2 may be played on an Ace.

This is a hard game. By our own count, only about one shuffled deal in five can be cleared at all under these rules, even by a player who could see the whole deck. Most people who play the strict game play it for the score, not for the win, usually over nine deals.

A Queen May Be Played on a King

This is the most common softening of the rules. A King no longer ends the run: you may step back down from it to a Queen and carry on. So King, Queen, King, Queen, Jack is a legal run. An Ace still may not be played on a King, and Aces stay low.

The change sounds small but it roughly doubles your chances. About four deals in ten can be cleared this way. The King stops being a card to fear, and the Ace, which still connects only to the 2, becomes the awkward end of the deck.

Wrap Around: King and Ace Connect

Here the ranks form a circle. An Ace may be played on a King and a King on an Ace, so a run can go Queen, King, Ace, 2, 3 without stopping. Because the King now has a neighbor on each side, a Queen may be played on it too. Every card has two ranks that fit it, and there are no dead ends anywhere.

Players sometimes call this "turning the corner" or "going around the corner." It is much the easiest way to play: about nine deals in ten can be cleared, and with a little care you will win often. It is a good choice when you are learning the game, or when you simply want a relaxing few minutes.

If you switch on both house rules together, the game plays as wrap around, since that rule already lets a Queen go on a King.

Skip Deals That Cannot Be Won

This is not a rule of the card game. It is a courtesy our game offers. When it is on, which it is to begin with, each new deal is quietly checked before you see it, and a deal that nobody could clear is passed over for another. You are still playing an honest shuffle; you are just spared the hopeless ones.

It does not make the game easy. A deal that can be won may have only one or two winning paths, and you can't see the order of the deck. Turn the option off if you would like the cards exactly as they fall, the way they would at your own table. A deal you choose by typing its number is never skipped.

Scoring Variations

Nine Holes

The classic way to play is a round of nine deals. Write down the cards left after each deal and add them up at the end. A total of 36, four a hole, is the usual par. Our game shows the score for each deal; a scrap of paper does the rest. Eighteen holes with a par of 72 makes a longer evening.

Strokes Off for a Clear Table

Many players reward a win with a score below zero. When you clear the columns, each card still in the deck counts as one stroke under par. Clear the table with three cards left in the deck and you write down minus 3 for the hole. It gives you a reason to keep playing carefully even when a win is certain.

Match Play

Two people can play against each other with two decks, or by taking turns at the same deal number. Each plays the hole alone, and the lower score wins the hole. The player who wins more of the nine holes wins the match. In our game you can both type the same deal number in Settings to get exactly the same cards.

Other Rules You May Have Played

Jokers Wild

Some families shuffle one or two jokers into the deck. A joker can be played on any card, and any card can be played on a joker, which rescues a run that has hit a King. With jokers the deck is two cards larger and the game is noticeably easier. Our game uses the plain 52-card deck.

Kings Removed First

An old-fashioned kindness: any King that is the last card of a column may be set aside at once, without needing a Queen. It takes most of the sting out of the strict rule while leaving the rest of the game alone.

A Face-Down Layout

In a tougher version only the last card of each column is face up, and each card is turned as it is uncovered. This removes nearly all of the planning, and most players find it less satisfying than the open layout, where the fun is in tracing your run before you play it.

Six Cards to a Column

Dealing seven columns of six leaves only nine cards in the deck after the pile is started. It is very hard to clear and is best played with the wrap-around rule.

Relatives of Golf

Tri Peaks

Tri Peaks uses the same one-higher, one-lower play onto a single pile, but the cards are laid out in three overlapping pyramids and many start face down. It usually lets the ranks wrap from King to Ace, and it rewards long runs with bonus points.

Black Hole

In Black Hole the whole deck is dealt face up in seventeen fans of three around a single Ace, and there is no deck to draw from. Ranks wrap around. With every card in view from the start it is a pure puzzle, a little like Golf with the luck taken out.

Pyramid

Pyramid is another quick clearing game, but there you remove pairs of cards that add up to 13 instead of following a run. If you like Golf for its speed, you will probably like Pyramid as well.

The Other "Golf"

There is also a card game called Golf for two or more players, in which everyone has a small grid of face-down cards and tries to swap them for low ones. Apart from the name and the idea that low scores win, the two games have nothing in common.

Which Should I Play?

Deal Numbers

Every deal in our game has a number from 1 to 999,999, shown above the table. The same number always gives the same shuffle, whatever house rules are switched on. To play a particular deal, open Settings and type its number under Play a specific deal. It is a nice way to compare scores with a friend or to try yesterday's near miss again.

New to the game? The full rules walk through a deal step by step, and the strategy guide shows how to bring your score down.