Golf is a timing puzzle disguised as a simple card game.
The rules are among the simplest in solitaire — remove cards that are one rank above or below the current foundation top. But good Golf play is about preserving rank flexibility: protecting the bridge cards that connect long clearing chains and knowing when a stock draw is better than a seemingly good removal.
Last updated: May 2026
History and background
Golf Solitaire takes its name from the scoring metaphor embedded in the game: the goal is to clear as many cards as possible before the stock runs out, and your “score” is the number of cards left on the tableau — lower is better, exactly like golf. A full clearance is a hole-in-one.
The game appeared in early twentieth-century patience compendiums and was included in Microsoft’s Solitaire Collection, which introduced it to a much wider audience. It is closely related to Black Hole Solitaire, which generalizes the rank-adjacency rule and removes the stock entirely. Tri Peaks Solitaire uses a different layout with the same sequential-removal mechanic.
Golf looks deceptively simple. In practice, win rates for thoughtful play are roughly 40–50 percent — much lower than the rules suggest, because a single poor rank decision early in the game can block several future chains.
How the game is set up
The 52-card deck is dealt into seven columns of five face-up cards each. The remaining 17 cards form the stock. One card is turned over to start the foundation.
- Removal rule — The top card of any tableau column can be removed if it is exactly one rank higher or lower than the current foundation top. Suits do not matter. Kings are typically a dead end (no card can extend from a King in standard rules), though some implementations allow wrapping from King to Ace.
- Stock draw — If no removal is possible or desired, flip the top stock card to the foundation. This changes the rank you are building from.
- Win condition — Clear all cards from all seven columns before the stock runs out.
In most standard Golf implementations, you cannot continue from King upward to Ace. A King in the tableau stops all chains passing through that rank unless a new stock card creates a Queen that can play below it. This is why Kings are especially dangerous to waste.
The rank-adjacency chain
The core skill in Golf is visualizing how many cards you can remove in a single unbroken chain from the current foundation top. A chain continues as long as each removal produces a card adjacent in rank to the next available tableau top.
The longest possible chain clears the entire tableau in one run. In practice, chains of six to ten cards are strong, and chains of three to five are the workhorses of most winnable games. When the chain breaks, you draw from stock to reset the foundation rank.
The foundation shows a 7. Column A has a 6 on top, and below it an 8. Column B has an 8 on top, and below it a 9, and below that a 10.
Playing column A’s 6 extends the chain (6 → 5 if a 5 is available, or you can play the 8 next for a 7→6→8 run). Playing column B’s 8 opens a longer potential chain (8→9→10) without consuming the 6. If columns A’s 8 and column B’s chain are the only realistic options, the longer chain through column B is almost always preferable.
The key concept is bridge ranks: middle-value cards (5, 6, 7, 8, 9) that connect multiple chains. A 7 can extend both upward (toward 8, 9, 10) and downward (toward 6, 5, 4). Spending a bridge rank on a short chain of two may cost you a longer chain of six later.
Column prioritization
Not all columns are equal. A column that is one removal away from being cleared entirely is more valuable than a column with four or five cards remaining, even if the top card of the deeper column is the right rank right now.
Clearing a column opens it and removes it as a source of future blocking. Partially depleting a column still leaves cards that need attention later. When you have a choice between advancing two chains, prefer the one that finishes a column.
A card that clears a column is worth more than an otherwise equivalent card that leaves one card remaining in that column. The residual card will need a second removal — which costs a stock draw or another chain step — at a future point when ranks may not align.
Stock timing
The stock is a limited resource in Golf — you only have 17 draws. Each draw resets the foundation rank, giving you a new opportunity to start a chain. The question is always: would a chain from the current rank squeeze out more removals before I draw, or am I wasting a chain opportunity by drawing now?
Before drawing from stock, scan every tableau column for cards adjacent to the current foundation top. If two or more removals are available, always exhaust them first. If only one removal is available, assess whether it leads to further chain opportunities or stops immediately.
Foundation shows a 4. Only one tableau top matches (a 3 in column 5). Below the 3 is a Jack with nothing adjacent to a Jack in the rest of the tableau. Playing the 3 now changes the foundation to 3, which does not obviously extend the chain.
Draw instead. The 3 will still be there once you have a more useful foundation rank. A stock card might show a 5 or a 2, both of which open more chain possibilities than the dead-end 3→Jack path.
The King problem
In standard Golf (no wraparound), Kings are chain stoppers. Any chain that reaches a King — either because the King is on top of a column or because the foundation shows a King — is stuck until a stock card brings the foundation away from the King rank.
The strategic implication: do not voluntarily move toward a King unless there is a clear benefit. If a chain from a 10 could continue 10→9→8 or 10→Jack→King, the King path should be avoided unless clearing that King removes it as a future blocker and the column below it has high-value continuations.
Also watch for Kings that are trapped inside columns — buried under playable cards. When you clear a card from a column and the card below is a King, you have just created a dead top. That column cannot be extended further from the current chain unless a Queen appears on the foundation.
Common mistakes
- Spending a bridge rank on a short chain. Using a 7 or 8 to extend a chain by one removal when that card could have anchored a much longer chain later is the most common way to leave unplayable clusters.
- Drawing from stock too soon. Players who draw the moment the current chain stops often miss a second removal that would have been available with one more scan of the tableau.
- Ignoring clearing opportunities. A column with one card left is one draw or removal away from being empty. Prioritizing its clearance is almost always correct.
- Playing toward Kings carelessly. Every chain that ends at a King costs a stock draw to escape. Chains that avoid Kings are worth more even if they are a card or two shorter.