What you need
A standard 52-card deck for 2 to 4 players; shuffle two decks together for 5 or more. A score sheet with a row per “hole” and a column per player; our printable covers nine or eighteen holes. The game is called Golf because you want the lowest score, and a game is nine deals, or “holes”.
There are two main forms: six-card Golf, described first, and four-card Golf, which uses knocking and memory.
Setup
Deal six cards face down to each player. Each player arranges them in two rows of three without looking, then turns any two of them face up. Put the rest of the deck face down as the stock and turn its top card to start the discard pile.
How to play
Six-card Golf
Starting left of the dealer, on your turn do one of the following:
- Take the top discard and swap it for any card in your layout, face up or face down. The replaced card goes face up on the discard pile. If you take the discard you must use it.
- Draw the top card of the stock and swap it for a card in your layout in the same way.
- Draw from the stock and discard the drawn card. Under many house rules you must then turn one of your face-down cards face up.
A card swapped into the layout is always placed face up. Face-down cards stay unknown until they are swapped out or the hole ends.
The hole ends when one player’s six cards are all face up; the other players get one final turn each (pagat.com and Wikipedia; Bicycle’s rules end the hole at once). Everyone then turns their remaining cards face up and scores.
Four-card Golf
Each player has four cards in a square, looks once at the two nearest cards, and then may never look again. On your turn draw from the stock or discard and replace a card blind, or discard a stock card unused. Instead of drawing, you may knock; every other player then has one more turn and the hole ends. Memory is everything: you have to remember what you put where.
Scoring and winning
After each hole, add up your layout:
- Ace: 1
- 2: minus 2
- 3 to 10: face value
- Jack and queen: 10
- King: 0
- A pair of equal cards in the same column (one above the other): 0 for the column, even for two 2s
In four-card Golf, 2s count 2 and there is no column rule in the basic game; some groups cancel pairs anywhere in the square.
Record each hole on the score sheet. After nine holes (or eighteen for a longer game), the lowest total wins.
Common variants
- Knock penalty. In four-card Golf, a knocker who does not have the lowest hand adds 10 points, or has their score doubled.
- Jokers. Two jokers worth minus 5 each; the lowest layout can then be negative.
- Nine-card Golf. A 3 by 3 grid; a full column of three equal cards scores zero. The hole ends instantly when a grid is all face up.
- Eight-card and ten-card Golf. Larger grids with the same idea.
- Power cards (Cambio, Cabo, Pablo). Four-card Golf where certain cards let you peek at or swap cards. Several commercial games are based on this.
- Play to 100. Instead of nine holes, play until someone passes 100 points; lowest score wins.
Tips for first games
- Kings are gold: a king in your layout scores zero and can never hurt you.
- Pair up columns. A pair of 10s in a column is worth 0, so matching a high face-up card is often better than swapping it for a low one.
- Turn over your two starting cards in different columns, so you have more options for pairs.
- Do not end the hole early just because you can; count the face-up cards around the table first. Ending it while opponents still hold hidden cards often leaves them with high ones.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards do you get in Golf? Six in the standard game, laid out in two rows of three; four in four-card Golf; nine in the 3 by 3 version.
What is a king worth in Golf? Zero. Twos are worth minus 2, aces 1, jacks and queens 10.
When does a hole end? In six-card Golf, when a player has all six cards face up; the others usually get one last turn. In four-card Golf, when someone knocks and everyone else has taken a turn.
Do pairs cancel in any position? In six-card Golf only pairs in the same column cancel. Some four-card groups cancel any pair; decide before you deal.
How many holes do you play? Nine is standard, eighteen for a long evening.
