Golf Solitaire Tips: Column Order, the Ace-King Wrap, When to Turn the Stock and Why the Score Counts Down (2026)

Last updated: October 6, 2026 · Tested on Playnesta's Golf Solitaire build (MIT vanilla build by Alexander Berson @ 4f9859b8) · Goal: clear all 35 tableau cards · Score: one point per card left behind

Method: every number below was read from this site's playable build and then re-checked in a headless browser. From the shipped code: one 52-card deck is dealt into 35 tableau cards face up (7 columns of 5) plus 1 card on the foundation and a 16-card stock; only the bottom card of each column can be moved, so exactly seven cards are exposed at the start; a legal play is one rank above or one rank below the foundation top, suits never matter, and this build also allows the Ace-King wrap (rank difference 12); the stock is a single 16-card pass with no redeal; clearing all 52 cards wins and a fresh deal is dealt automatically, and a deal with an empty stock and no match dims the board and the next tap re-deals the same layout; there is no undo, no hint and no score display — golf scoring is one point per tableau card left. The headless run passed 52/52 checks: a clean start with zero console errors, zero external requests and zero 4xx responses, 35 face-up tableau cards with exactly 7 exposed and 16 face-down stock cards, a real mouse click moving a matching card onto the foundation, a non-matching card shaking without moving, the card above a moved card becoming exposed, only the last stock card turning over, a real touch tap playing a card at 390px with all 52 cards kept inside the viewport, the Rules panel opening and closing, and the bridge emitting load / start / win / restart.

1. Read the seven exposed cards first

Golf is not a game you can rush. Thirty-five cards are face up on the table, but only seven of them can be touched: the bottom card of each of the seven columns. Everything above those seven is locked until the card under it moves, and that is the whole shape of the deal. So the first move is a scan, not a tap: look at the foundation card, then read the seven exposed ranks and find every card that sits one rank away from it. Usually there are two or three.

What matters is which of them you spend. Because a card you move becomes the new foundation top, every play changes which ranks are worth taking next. Two legal cards are never equally good: the better one exposes a rank that keeps the chain alive.

2. Columns move one card at a time, from the bottom up

A column is a queue. You may take the bottom card, then the one above it, then the one above that, and never out of order. That single rule is what makes Golf a planning game rather than a matching game: the cards you really want are usually the ones at the top of a column, and the only way to reach them is to find a chain of five plays that walks up that column one rank at a time.

So count from the top of a column when you are deciding. If the fifth card of a column is a 6 and the foundation is a 5, that 6 is five moves away, not one — and the four cards above it each have to be playable in turn. A column whose four buried cards share two or three ranks is a much better target than one whose buried ranks are scattered, because a short run of neighbouring ranks can be walked in either direction (4-5-6-5-4).

3. Here the ranks wrap: an Ace is next to a King

The adjacency rule is rank plus or minus one, and in this build Ace counts as both the lowest and the highest rank. So a King may be followed by a Queen or an Ace, and an Ace by a King or a 2. This is the friendlier "turning the corner" variant rather than the strict form where nothing may be played on a King, and it is the rule players forget most often — forgetting it usually means turning a stock card while a perfectly good move was sitting on the table.

The habit worth building: on every stall, check the two ends of the rank list first. When the foundation top is a King, scan your exposed cards for an Ace; when it is an Ace, scan for a King. On a stuck board the move that restarts the chain is very often this wrap, and it costs nothing to look.

4. The stock is one pass — spend it deliberately

When no exposed card matches, you turn one card from the 16-card stock onto the foundation and play on from the new top. There is no redeal and no second pass: once those sixteen cards are gone they are gone, and the deal ends as soon as nothing matches. That is the main rule difference from pyramid solitaire, where the waste can be recycled up to a chosen limit.

Because the stock is finite and short, it is not a safety net — it is a budget of sixteen chances to unlock a column. Two consequences. First, never turn a card while a legal move exists: some builds let you turn the stock at any time, but here the turn only happens when nothing matches, so the choice is made for you and the real decision is which column you have been avoiding. Second, when you are forced to turn, look at what the new top could unlock before turning again — a run of three or four turns in a row usually means a column was mis-sequenced several moves earlier.

5. The score counts what you leave behind

Golf is scored like the sport: one point for every card still on the tableau when the deal ends. Fewer is better, and clearing the board is the best result — a score of zero, or less if you cleared it while stock cards were still in hand (each unused stock card counts one off). A deal where you strand six cards is a six. This is the one thing to keep in mind when you are choosing between two legal moves: the move that opens a column is almost always worth more than the move that merely clears a card, because a column you never opened is a pile of points you will finish with.

Two honest caveats. First, many Golf deals cannot be cleared — a rank can end up buried under cards that can only be reached in the wrong order, and with a single stock pass there is no rescue. That is normal, and it is why golf scoring exists at all. Second, this build does not display the score: no counter, no undo and no hint button. If you want to know how you did, count the cards left on the table. A deal you finish with one or two columns still standing is a good deal.

6. The endgame decides the score, not the opening

Mid-game, the board usually has a comfortable choice of moves. The last ten cards are where the deal is decided. Once the foundation has climbed through most of the ranks, the cards left exposed are the awkward ones, and the stock turns stop being a tool and become the clock.

Two endgame habits pay off. First, when you have a real choice, prefer the play that reduces the number of columns with cards in them — emptying a column entirely means those cards are on the foundation and cannot cost you anything. Second, before a forced turn, recount the exposed cards; a rank you dismissed two moves ago is very often legal again now, and a wasted turn at the end costs more than a wasted turn at the start.

And when the board does stall — stock empty, nothing matching — the cards dim and the next tap re-deals the same layout, keeping only the current foundation card. There is no loss screen; the deal simply starts over.

FAQ

How do you play Golf Solitaire?

Deal 35 cards face up into 7 columns of 5, put one card on the foundation and keep the other 16 as the stock. Only the bottom card of a column can move. Play it onto the foundation when its rank is one higher or one lower than the foundation top; suits do not matter and an Ace is adjacent to a King. When nothing matches, turn a stock card. Clear all 52 cards to win, and count one point for every card you leave behind.

What is the difference between Golf Solitaire and TriPeaks Solitaire?

Both build chains of ranks one apart on a single foundation. But TriPeaks deals 28 cards into a peak that unlocks from the bottom up as you clear pairs of cards below, pays a rising 1-2-3 streak and lets you turn the stock whenever you like; Golf deals all 35 tableau cards face up, moves only the bottom card of each column, gives you a single 16-card pass and scores what is left rather than what you clear.

Can you redeal the stock in Golf Solitaire?

No. The stock is a single pass of 16 cards. When it is empty and no exposed card matches the foundation top, the deal is over — this build dims the board and the next tap re-deals the same layout.

Does an Ace count as next to a King in Golf?

In this build, yes. Ranks wrap, so a King may be followed by a Queen or an Ace, and an Ace by a King or a 2. The strict form of the game forbids playing on a King, so if you learned that version, unlearn it here — the wrap is a legal and often essential move.

How is Golf Solitaire scored?

Like golf: one point for every card still on the tableau when the deal ends, so lower is better. Clearing the whole board scores zero, and if you clear it with stock cards still unturned each of those counts one off, giving a negative score. Many deals cannot be cleared, which is why the score is a count of leftovers rather than a win or a loss.

Is every Golf Solitaire deal winnable?

No, and this build does not pretend otherwise. A rank can end up buried behind cards that cannot be reached in the right order, and with one stock pass there is nothing to rescue it with. A deal where no exposed card matches the opening foundation card is dead on arrival — use the New deal button for a fresh shuffle.

Is there an undo or a hint?

No. The build ships the game itself without a move counter, an undo stack or a hint button. If you want to step back, the only way is to start a new deal — which is why it pays to plan a column before you start taking cards off it.

Does it work on a phone, and does it save my progress?

Yes to the phone: at a 390px viewport all 52 cards stay on screen with no sideways scrolling, and a tap runs the same code path as a mouse click. The deal is not saved between visits — every time you open the page you get a fresh shuffle, and the New deal button reloads the page with another one.

Where can I play it?

Right on this site's golf-solitaire page. It is built on the MIT-licensed Golf build by Alexander Berson (commit 4f9859b8); the card pips are four SVG files and the fonts ship with the page rather than being fetched from a CDN, and the license and attribution are listed under the game.