How to play Golf Solitaire

By Ari Hlynsson · 1 player · Updated 10 September 2026

Clear all thirty-five cards off the seven columns. Whatever is still in the stock when you finish does not count against you.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   Thirty-five cards are dealt into seven columns of five, all face up, and one more is turned up beside the stock to start on.

2. 2

   Only the bottom card of each column is in play. Tap it to move it onto the turned-up card.

3. 3

   A card may go if it is one rank above or below the one showing. Suits do not matter at all.

4. 4

   Aces and kings join up: an ace plays on a king, and a king plays on an ace.

5. 5

   When nothing on the table fits, turn the next card of the stock. There are sixteen of them and there is no redeal.

6. 6

   Clear all seven columns to win. If the stock runs out with nothing left to play, the round is over.

Tips that change how you play

• Take the card that empties a column before any other. A column that is gone stops being somewhere a card can hide, and every later run gets longer for it.
• Look for runs before you move, not after. Playing a six because it fits can waste the seven you needed for a four-card run out of the same column.
• Dig into the deepest column when nothing empties. The cards you have not seen yet are all at the tops of columns, and a deep column is where the ones you will need later are buried.
• Spend the stock late, not early. Every card you turn is one you cannot turn later, and the table can often give you two or three more moves if you look again.

A worked choice

The card showing is a seven. On the table there is a lone six at the bottom of a column with nothing else in it, and an eight at the bottom of a column of five. Both are legal. Take the six: it empties a column, and that column stops existing as a place for cards to be trapped for the rest of the round. The eight will very likely still be there in a moment, because an eight is reachable from a seven or a nine and you are about to be sitting on a six — from which a five or a seven comes next, and a seven puts the eight straight back in play. The general shape of it is that the move which removes a column is worth more than the move which starts a run, because the run can usually be started later and the column cannot usually be cleared later.

Mistakes that cost beginners the game

Playing the first card that fits.

There are usually two or three legal moves and they are not worth the same. Ask which one opens the most: the card that clears a column is almost always right, and the card that exposes a rank you can already see a use for is next. The first one you noticed is rarely either.

Turning the stock the moment you are stuck.

Look along all seven columns once more first. It is easy to miss a legal move when the card that fits is at the bottom of a column you have stopped looking at, and every stock card spent early is one you do not have at the end, where they decide the round.

Treating a long run as the goal.

A run of six from one column feels excellent and can leave you with six columns of five and nowhere to go. Runs are a means of emptying columns, not the point. If a shorter run clears a column and a longer one does not, take the shorter one.

Common questions about Golf Solitaire