There are TWO card games named golf. For the sport, click on the link.
Game 1
GOLF is a card game for four or more players.
GOLF is played using two standard 52 card decks, and 4 Jokers. Initially, each player is dealt 6 cards face-down from the shuffled deck, whose remainder (the stock pile) is placed face-down on the table with a face-up card (the discard pile) next to it. The goal of each player is to reduce the value of cards held in hand by replacing them with lesser value cards or pairing them up.
To begin play each player arranges the 6 cards in 3 rows of 2 in front of him and then turns only the top two cards over to be face up. At each turn, a player may draw 1 card from the stock pile or the discard pile. The player then decides to replace a card anywhere in his six cards or just discard the drawn card. As the face down-cards are replaced they become face-up. The game ends when a player has all 6 cards face up. The remaining players may then look at all of their face down cards and have one turn to draw a card to improve their hands. After this is complete, the totals of each hand are recorded under that player’s name on a score sheet.
The rank of cards is: All Kings are 0 points, all Jokers are -2 points, all Aces are 1 point, all Queens & Jacks are 10 points, and all other cards are face value. Any like value cards that are paired side by side are then worth zero points, unless the pair consists of Jokers, which scores as -4 points. If 4 like value cards are in a group of 4 then each of the opponents receives 10 extra points.
This play is repeated for 9 hands (hence golf). The player with the lowest score at the end of 9 hands is the winner.
Game 2 solitaire
Golf is also a solitaire card game, also known as One Foundation, in which the object is to remove all the cards from the columns.
You begin by dealing a tableau of seven columns, each having five cards, and then dealing one card to the foundation. The rules are:
- There is only one foundation, dealt face up from the beginning.
- Build up or down regardless of suit (for example, if the top of the foundation pile is a 10, you can play either a 9 or a Jack on it).
- Ranking of cards is not continuous: an Ace may be built only on a 2, a King only on a Queen.
- No building on the tableau.
- The top card of each pile is available for play to the foundation.
- Whenever there are no possible plays, turn cards up one at a time form the cards remaining in the pack after dealing.
- There is no redeal. The game is over when the pack is exhausted and no more moves are available.
There are variations on these rules, for example:
- All building stops if a King reaches the foundation
- Using more than one pack
- Wrapping from King to Ace and vice versa.
