A chain with two dead ends

Golf Solitaire

Thirty-five cards in seven open columns, nothing hidden, and one pass through the stock. Play anything one rank above or below the waste card — except that kings do not join back to aces here, which is what turns an easy-sounding rule into a real game.

7 columns of five
One rank up or down
No king-ace wrap
One stock pass

Stock16

Tableau35

Moves0

Waste

Play a bottom card one rank above or below the waste card.

Draw from the stock when no bottom tableau card fits the waste.

One up or one down

Golf Solitaire rules

Short enough to learn in a minute. The no-wrap line is the one that catches people who have played other versions.

Golf Solitaire setup and rules
Setup
Deck	One standard 52-card deck.
Tableau	Seven columns of five cards, 35 in total, every one face up.
Stock	The remaining 17 cards; one is turned immediately to start the waste.
Foundations	None. There is only the waste pile.
Playing
Available cards	The bottom card of each column — seven choices at any moment.
The move	Play a card that is exactly one rank above or below the waste card.
Suits	Ignored entirely. Only rank matters.
No wrapping	A king does not connect to an ace on this page. The chain stops at both ends.
Drawing	When nothing fits, turn the next stock card onto the waste. One pass, no recycling.
Ending
Win	All 35 tableau cards cleared. Cards left in the stock do not matter.
Loss	The stock is empty and no bottom card fits the waste.

Seven columns, one waste

How to play Golf Solitaire

Thirty-five cards go into seven columns of five, all face up. One more card is turned to start the waste, and the remaining sixteen wait in the stock. There are no foundations and no building — there is only the waste pile, and everything you clear goes onto it.

The bottom card of each column is available, so you always have seven candidates. Any of them that is exactly one rank above or below the current waste card can be played, and it becomes the new waste card. Suits never matter.

When nothing fits, you draw from the stock, and that is where the pressure lives: sixteen draws, no recycling, and thirty-five cards to shift. A good deal is one long chain; a bad one is a series of two-card runs that burn a draw each time.

Kings and aces stop

Why kings and aces are dead ends

In many versions of Golf the chain wraps: a king connects to an ace and the sequence runs in a loop. This page does not wrap. The rank chain runs from ace to king and stops at both ends.

That single choice is most of the difficulty. Every other rank has two ways in and two ways out — a 7 can be reached from a 6 or an 8 and leads to either. An ace can only be reached from a 2, and once played the only card that follows it is another 2. A king is the same in reverse.

Eleven ranks have two exits. Two have one. That makes aces and kings the most expensive cards on the board: each costs a specific neighbour to reach and gives you almost nothing back. A column with a king at the bottom is a column you should probably leave alone until a queen turns up, and a king buried in the middle is a wall the whole column must be dug past.

Reading the waste

Which cards the waste pile will take

Legal and illegal Golf moves
The move	Verdict	Why
The waste shows a 9. You play an 8.	Legal	One rank below. Suit is irrelevant.
The waste shows a 9. You play a 10.	Legal	One rank above works just as well.
The waste shows a queen. You play a king.	Legal	Queen to king is a normal step up.
The waste shows a king. You play an ace.	Illegal	No wrapping here. A king connects only to a queen.
The waste shows an ace. You play a king.	Illegal	Same rule from the other end. An ace connects only to a 2.
You play a card from the middle of a column.	Illegal	Only the bottom card of each column is available.
The waste shows a 7. You play a 9.	Illegal	Ranks must be consecutive; nothing may be skipped.

Do the arithmetic

Sixteen draws, thirty-five cards

You have to average better than two cards cleared per draw to finish a deal, and every draw you spend on a single card puts you further behind. That is the whole tension of Golf: the rule is trivially easy and the budget is not.

It also means a long chain is worth far more than its length suggests. Clearing six cards on one waste card is not just six cards — it is five draws you did not spend, which is nearly a third of your stock.

Reading ahead

Golf Solitaire strategy

Look for the longest chain before you play the first card of it. Because every move changes the waste, a run you can see now may not exist after one careless move. Trace the sequence mentally — 8, 7, 6, 5 — and check that each step really is at the bottom of a column before starting.

Keep all seven columns alive as long as you can. Options are the resource in Golf, and a cleared column reduces your choices permanently. Clearing evenly across the board keeps seven candidates in play; digging one column to the floor early leaves you with six, then five.

Watch which direction you are travelling. If you have been climbing 4-5-6-7-8 and the board is full of low cards, that chain is taking you away from everything you still need to clear. Sometimes the right move is the shorter run that turns you back around.

And plan around the kings and aces from the start. Note where they sit before your first move. A king in row two of a column is a much bigger problem than a king at the bottom, because you have to clear down to it and then find a queen at exactly that moment.

Three costly reflexes

Where Golf deals get away from you

Emptying a column too early

A cleared column is one fewer choice for the rest of the deal. With seven columns you have seven options each turn; with three you have three, and the odds that any of them fits the waste collapse. Spread the clearing out rather than digging one column to the floor.

Playing a card just because it fits

Every move changes the waste card, which changes what is available next. Taking an 8 to reach a 7 is only good if a 7 is actually down there. Look one step ahead before committing, because the alternative may have opened a longer run.

Ignoring where the kings are

A king can only be reached from a queen and leads nowhere afterwards. A king sitting at the bottom of a column is a card you must spend a queen on, and a king buried in the middle is a wall the whole column has to be dug past.

Golf's honest odds

Is Golf Solitaire winnable?

Frequently not, and the no-wrap rule is why. Versions that let kings connect to aces are considerably easier, because the chain never terminates and a stranded king is always recoverable. Here a deal with several kings buried mid-column may be unwinnable from the opening, and there is no redeal to rescue it.

We do not quote a win rate. Published Golf figures almost always describe the wrapping version or one with multiple stock passes, and neither describes this page. Clearing all thirty-five cards is a genuinely good result; clearing most of them is the normal one.

This version

The strict no-wrap ruleset

Seven columns of five, 35 cards, all face up from the start.
Only the bottom card of each column is available.
One rank up or down, suits ignored.
No wrapping: a king never connects to an ace.
One pass through the stock, no recycling and no redeal.
Nothing ever moves between columns — the waste is the only destination.

Undo is unlimited and unpenalised, and there is no score or timer. If you have played a Golf that allowed king-to-ace, this one will feel noticeably harder, and that is the intended difference rather than an omission.

The one-pile games

Golf against the other quick clearing games

These four all clear a board rather than building foundations, and they finish in a few minutes. What separates them is how many choices you get each turn.

Golf compared with TriPeaks, Pyramid, and Aces Up
Game	Board	Chain wraps?	What blocks a card	Choices per turn
Golf	7 open columns of five	No — chain breaks at A and K	Only the bottom card of a column	Seven, every turn
TriPeaks	Three overlapping peaks	Yes — ace connects to king	Two cards cover each one	Ten at the start, fewer as peaks open
Pyramid	28 cards in a triangle	Not applicable — pairs to 13	Two cards cover each one	Seven base cards at the start
Aces Up	Four piles dealt from a stock	Not applicable — same-suit comparison	Only the top card of a pile	Four, plus an empty-pile move

TriPeaks is the direct comparison and the friendlier game: it uses the same one-rank rule but the chain wraps, so no card is ever a dead end. If Golf's kings are what frustrates you, that is the page to try.

Explore

More solitaire games

Try the wrapping version of the same rule, or a different way to clear a board.

Tested rules

How this solitaire game is checked

Game logic is implemented and tested by Brian Hamilton, then reviewed by Karan Hamilton for rule clarity, player flow, and correction notes.

How we make and test solitaire games