Golf Solitaire Strategy Guide
Golf is the quick, streaky solitaire. Seven columns of five face-up cards are cleared by playing a column's bottom card whenever it is one rank higher or lower than the card on the waste. Everything is visible, so Golf is a planning game: strong players think a whole run ahead before they touch a card. This guide covers how to choose between columns, how to spend the stock and how to tell when a deal is already lost.
Opening principles
You start with 35 cards in seven columns, one card on the waste and 16 cards in the stock. Suits never matter, and Ace and King are not neighbours here: an Ace only takes a 2, and a King only takes a Queen. You win when all seven columns are empty; cards left in the stock do not count.
- Look at all seven bottom cards first. Find every one that fits the waste card, not just the first.
- Trace the chain before you tap. For each option ask: after this card, what is the next one, and the one after that? Pick the branch that goes furthest.
- Use the fact that everything is face up. You can see which cards are buried behind others, so you know what each column will offer later.
Planning runs
A run is a series of plays without touching the stock. Long runs win Golf, because each stock card is only one chance to start another.
- Prefer the branch that keeps both neighbours alive. A 7 on the waste takes a 6 or an 8; if you can play so that the other one is still available next, do it.
- Take from tall columns when the choice is otherwise equal. Tall columns hide the most cards you must reach, and an empty column costs you nothing.
- Plan the turning points. A run cannot go up past a King or down past an Ace. Decide where each run will end so that it does not end by accident.
Using the stock
The stock holds 16 cards and there is no redeal, so it is a hard budget. Across the whole game the waste gets at most 17 cards (the starting one plus 16 draws) to clear 35 cards, which means you need about two column cards per waste card on average.
- Draw only when nothing fits. Drawing early throws away a card that could have started a run later.
- Keep the bottom cards varied. If all seven bottom cards are close in rank, most draws will miss. A spread of ranks makes almost any new waste card useful.
- Look at the remaining cards. You cannot see the stock, but you can see the columns, so you know which ranks are still out there.
Common mistakes
- Taking the first card that fits. Several columns often match; the first one is rarely the best.
- Forgetting that Ace and King do not connect. Some versions let them wrap around. Here they do not, and a run that reaches a King going up simply stops.
- Emptying the short column and ignoring the tall one. The cards you cannot reach are the ones that lose the game.
- Drawing out of habit. Before every draw, check the seven bottom cards one more time.
- Playing on after the deal is lost. If every card you need next is buried behind a card that cannot be freed, the game cannot be won. Spot it early and start again.
Advanced techniques
- Work backwards from the buried cards. If a column holds a card of a rank that is nearly gone, make sure the waste can reach that rank before the stock runs out.
- Park a run on purpose. Sometimes it is right to stop a run early so that a particular card stays available for the next waste card.
- Count the Kings and Aces. They are dead ends. A column with a King at the bottom of a long run needs a Queen to get started, and an Ace needs a 2 behind it.
- Use Undo and the Solver. Undo lets you try another branch for free, and the Solver in the menu tells you whether the current position can still be won.
How winnable are the deals?
Many random Golf deals cannot be won. In our screening, the solver found a full winning line within its search limit for about 18% of 4,000 random deals (704 of them). That figure is a lower bound, because a solver with a limited search can miss lines. New games and the Daily Challenge only use deals the solver has proved winnable, so a winning line always exists. The solver sees the whole stock, and you do not, so winnable does not mean easy.
Practice and play
Play a few deals with a single rule: before every tap, follow the run to its end in your head. You will notice how often the first option strands you and how often a different column goes twice as far. That habit is worth more than any single trick.