Golf Solitaire is a one-deck game in which you clear seven columns by moving cards to a face-up waste pile. Each move must be one rank higher or lower than the waste card, regardless of suit. Classic Golf on Cards4.net uses low aces, no King–Ace wrap, and a special restriction: nothing can be played onto a king.

The goal is to remove all 35 cards from the columns. You do not build foundations, move groups, or fill empty spaces. The stock gives you a limited supply of new starting cards when a chain stops or you choose to change direction.

The layout and stock

Seven columns contain five face-up cards each. Only the exposed card at the lower end of a column can move. A card above it remains blocked until the cards below it have been removed, even though its rank is visible. This makes reading the order within each column useful from the start.

One of the remaining 17 cards starts the waste; the other 16 form the face-down stock. Drawing moves exactly one stock card onto the waste and covers the previous waste card. You cannot select an older waste card or cycle the stock again. An empty column stays empty.

Feature Cards4 Classic Golf rule
Deck 52 cards, no jokers
Tableau Seven columns of five face-up cards
Starting waste One face-up card
Stock 16 draws, one card at a time, no redeal
Move Exposed column card one rank above or below the waste
Ace Connects only to a 2
King Can go onto a Queen; accepts no card afterward
Win Remove all 35 tableau cards

With a 7 on the waste, an exposed 6 or 8 is legal. A second 7 is not. Colors and suits do not change this: a heart 6 and a club 6 are checked by the same rank rule. You cannot take a blocked card directly, even when its rank would fit.

A chain can turn around. For example, 7 → 6 → 5 → 6 → 7 is legal if every next card is available when needed. Each move changes the waste immediately. If removing the first 6 exposes a 5 in that column, you can use it on the next move; the 5 was unavailable before the 6 moved.

Kings and aces

An Ace accepts a 2, and a 2 accepts an Ace. An Ace cannot connect to a King in either direction. A Queen accepts a King, but playing that King ends the tableau chain: even a Queen cannot be placed on the King. If cards remain, you need a stock draw to change the waste.

This restriction also applies when the starting waste or a drawn card is a King. Draw again if stock remains. If no stock remains and the tableau still holds cards, the deal is blocked. If a King is the final tableau card and you play it onto a Queen, you win because the board is already clear.

Drawing and the end of a deal

You may draw while a legal tableau move exists, but every draw spends one of your 16 stock cards. Before doing so, inspect the available chain and the cards it would uncover. The Golf strategy guide compares these choices with concrete examples.

An empty stock does not end the game by itself. With a 4 on the waste, you can still play an exposed 3, then a 2, then an Ace. You lose only when tableau cards remain and no legal move or stock draw is available. Clearing the tableau wins even if stock cards remain.

Hint, Undo and practice

Hint suggests a legal move; it does not solve the deal or promise a winning continuation. Undo lets you revisit a choice and compare what two routes uncover. A random deal is not guaranteed to be solvable, so a blocked position does not by itself prove that your last decision was wrong.

Variants you may meet elsewhere

Golf has appeared in printed rule books for decades, and digital versions do not all follow the same details. The three rules most likely to differ are the King, the Ace and the scoring. Check them before carrying advice from another version into a Cards4 deal.

Wrap-around Golf, sometimes called Putt Putt, lets an Ace follow a King and a King follow an Ace. A chain can then pass over the top of the ranks instead of stopping, which makes deals easier and removes the dead end that Classic Golf builds around Kings. A relaxed variant keeps the no-wrap rule but allows a Queen onto a King, so a King no longer ends the chain. Cards4 Classic Golf uses neither relaxation.

Traditional rule books also score the game like a round of golf. Each deal is a hole: when the stock runs out, every card left in the tableau counts as one stroke, and if you clear the tableau, each unused stock card counts as minus one. Nine deals make a round, and the lowest total wins. Cards4 records a deal as won or lost and keeps no stroke total, so a cleared tableau with stock to spare is simply a win.

Six-card and nine-card Golf are a different game that shares the name. Each player holds a grid of face-down cards, swaps them for lower values and compares totals at the end. Nothing in this guide applies to it.

Two Cards4 solitaires use the same one-rank move with a different layout. TriPeaks deals 28 overlapping cards in three peaks and allows King–Ace wrapping, while Pyramid replaces the rank rule with pairs that add up to 13. If you like reading a chain through visible cards, Pyramid on Cards4.net is a close relative.

FAQ

Why does a King end the chain in Golf Solitaire?

Classic Golf treats the King as the top of the ranks with nothing above it. A King can go onto a Queen, but no card can follow it, and without wrapping an Ace cannot either. Plan for that before playing a King: check the stock count and the card the King uncovers, because a stock draw is the only way to continue.

What is the difference between wrap-around and no-wrap Golf?

Wrap-around Golf connects King and Ace in both directions, so a chain can continue past a King. No-wrap Golf, the version on Cards4.net, stops every chain at a King and connects an Ace only to a 2. The same deal is harder without wrapping because Kings become dead ends.

How is Golf Solitaire scored in strokes and holes?

Traditional rules score each deal as a hole: one stroke for every tableau card left when the stock runs out, and minus one for every stock card left if you clear the tableau. Nine deals make a round. Cards4 records a win or a loss per deal and keeps no stroke total.

Can I move cards into an empty column?

No. Golf moves cards from columns to the waste only. Empty columns provide progress toward the win, rather than storage space for another card.

Does the order of cards in a column matter when I can see them all?

Yes. Seeing a rank does not make it playable. Only the exposed card at the end of each column can move, and the cards behind it become available one at a time, from the end of the column toward its top. The order decides which ranks appear when, so read it before starting a chain. The strategy guide shows how to compare routes using that order.

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