Play Golf Solitaire — Free

What is Golf Solitaire?

Golf Solitaire is a fast, one-deck card game named for the way a good round mirrors a low golf score — the fewer cards you leave stranded, the better you have done. A single shuffled 52-card pack is dealt into seven short columns of five face-up cards, a tableau of thirty-five cards in all. The seventeen cards that remain form the stock, and one of them is turned up to start a single waste pile. Your job is to clear every tableau card onto that waste pile by playing cards that sit exactly one rank above or one rank below the card currently showing, chaining up and down through the ranks for as long as you can.

The game takes its name from golf scoring rather than from anything on a fairway: each deal is treated like a "hole," and the handful of cards you cannot place become your score for that hole — so, just as in real golf, a lower number is the goal, and sweeping the whole board is the equivalent of a hole in one. Golf Solitaire is prized for being quick to learn and quick to play; a single hand rarely lasts more than a couple of minutes, which makes it perfect for a coffee break or a spare moment in a queue. On vygam it deals instantly in your browser with tap-to-play controls, an undo button, a running timer, and best-time and best-score tracking, so you can chase a personal record without any download or sign-up.

How to Play

Playing is a single tap — no dragging. A move is illegal and simply won't happen when you try to:

• play a card whose rank is more than one away from the card on the waste — a 5 will not go on an 8;
• move a card that is still covered — only the fully exposed bottom card of a column can be played;
• deal from the stock once it is empty, because Golf Solitaire gives you a single pass with no reshuffle;
• wrap a King onto an Ace, or an Ace onto a King, unless you switch on the optional "Around the corner" rule.

Golf Solitaire Tips & Strategy

Golf rewards planning as much as luck. Because you only ever draw one card at a time and can never reshuffle, the order in which you clear the board matters enormously. These four habits will lower your scores and turn near-misses into clean sweeps.

1. Look for long runs before you play

   Scan the whole tableau before touching a single card. One well-chosen start can unlock a chain that climbs and dips through several ranks — for example 6-7-8-7-6-5 — clearing cards from many columns in one flowing sequence. Grabbing the first legal card you happen to see often cuts a longer run short and wastes the momentum.

2. Dig toward the cards you'll need

   Only the front card of each column is playable, and the cards behind it stay locked until it moves away. If a rank you know you will need soon is buried in a column, spend your early moves clearing the cards sitting in front of it so it becomes available at exactly the right moment in your chain.

3. Save the stock for when you're truly stuck

   Your remaining stock cards are a limited, one-way resource — each tap of the deck spends one with no way to get it back, and there is no second pass. Exhaust every tableau move first, and only turn a fresh stock card when nothing on the board will go, so you keep as many future options open as possible.

4. Use Undo to test a line

   Unsure whether to play the six now or hold it for a longer chain later? Make the move, watch what opens up, then tap Undo to rewind if the other order looks stronger. Because Golf is a single-pass game, thinking one or two cards ahead — and stepping back whenever a line dead-ends — is the difference between a messy score and a spotless board.

Scoring & Winning

Golf Solitaire borrows its scoring straight from the sport. Clearing the entire tableau is a completed hole and the best possible result; if you can't finish, the number of cards stranded in the columns becomes your score, and lower is always better. On vygam the header keeps a live "Left" counter so you always know how close you are to a clean board, and the game quietly remembers both your fastest winning time and your lowest cards-left score in your browser, so every new deal can be measured against your personal best. There are no penalties and no clock forcing your hand — take as long as you like to find the tidiest possible line through the deck.

The "Around the Corner" Variation

By default, Golf Solitaire does not wrap around: an Ace is only a neighbour of a Two, and a King is only a neighbour of a Queen, so a sequence can never turn the corner from King back to Ace. Many players enjoy a looser, more forgiving version called "Around the corner," in which the ranks form a full loop — a King can be played on an Ace, and an Ace on a King. Flip the toggle above the board and the new rule takes effect instantly, opening up noticeably more moves and making deals easier to clear. It is a great way to warm up, to teach the game to a newcomer, or simply to enjoy a higher win rate on a relaxed afternoon.

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