When you want a relaxing card game with a dash of friendly competition, Golf is the perfect choice. It has a pleasant rhythm players fall into as you draw and flip cards looking to have the lowest scoring hand. It’s perfect to enjoy with friends while catching up.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 Standard Deck jokers removed
- 2-4 players
Set Up
Shuffle the deck thoroughly and deal each player six face down cards.
Players will arrange their cards on the table into three columns of two. Then each player will select two cards anywhere in their tableau to flip face up.
Place the remaining cards into the center of the table to form the draw deck with a space beside it to be the discard pile. .
Now you’re ready to play!
How to Play
Select a player to go first.
On your turn, you’ll choose to either draw the top card of the discard pile or draw the top card of the deck.
If you draw the top card of the discard pile, you must use it to replace a card in your tableau. You can replace one of your face up or face down cards. To do so, add the new card face up into that spot, and discard the card it replaced.
If you choose to draw the top card from the deck, you may look at it and decide whether or not you want to add it to your tableau. If you do not wish to keep it, you may discard the card.
Once you’ve discarded, your turn ends and play passes to the next player.
Card Values
Whether you want to keep or discard a card will depend on it’s value and use to you.
The card values are worth the following:
2 — -2
Aces — 1
3-10 — Face value
Jack, Queen — 10
King — 0
If you match up a pair of cards together in a column, the pair are now worth zero points.
Example: you have an 8 and a 5 in your center column, these cards would score 13 points. But, if you draw another 8 and replace the five with it, your center column would now score zero points.
Players continue taking turns until someone flips over all six of their cards, immediately ending the round.
Players flip over any face down cards that they have in their tableau and calculate their scores.
Collect the cards, shuffle thoroughly, and deal again for the next round.
Winning
A full game of Golf consists of 9 rounds.
The player with the fewest points at the end of 9 rounds is the winner.
Frequently asked Questions:
What if I match two 2’s in a column?
All matched cards in a column score 0 points, even 2s! To score -2 points for each 2 card, you would need to have them be unmatched in your tableau.
Can I play with Jokers?
Yes! This is a fun variant. If you want to play with Jokers, shuffle them in with the deck.
Jokers are each worth -20
Variants:
9 Card Golf:
