How to play Golf
Golf is a card game where you try to end up with the lowest score, just like real golf. You swap cards into a little grid in front of you. After nine hands, the lowest total wins.
- Ages 7+
- 2 to 6 players
- About 30 minutes
- You need: a deck of 52 cards (two decks for five or six players), paper and a pencil for scores
Easy rules, to read aloud
- Everyone gets four cards face down in a square.
- Peek at the two cards closest to you, then turn them back down.
- On your turn, take a card from the pile.
- Swap it for one of your cards, or throw it away.
- Low cards are good, and kings are zero!
- When you think you are low, knock on the table.
- After one more turn each, the lowest total wins.
The full rules
- Deal six cards face down to each player in two rows of three. Put the rest face down as the stock and turn its top card up to start the discard pile.
- Each player turns any two of their six cards face up. Do not look at the others.
- On your turn, take the top card of the discard pile or the stock.
- Swap it for any one of your six cards, placing it face up, and put the old card on the discard pile. A stock card may go straight onto the discard pile instead, but a card taken from the discard pile must be kept.
- Card values: ace 1, two is minus 2, three to ten as marked, jack and queen 10, king 0.
- Two cards of the same rank in one column, one above the other, cancel out and score zero.
- When one player's six cards are all face up, every other player gets one last turn. Then turn every card up and add up each layout.
- Play nine hands, called holes, and keep a running total.
How to win: After nine holes, the player with the lowest total wins. A score below zero is possible, and very good.
Tips
- Kings are worth nothing, so keep every king you get.
- Try to line up two matching cards in one column; they cancel out.
- Grab a two when you can: it takes points away.
What it practises
adding small numbers, negative numbers, remembering hidden cards, planning ahead.
Other ways to play
- Four-card golf. Four cards in a square. Peek at the near two once at the start. Instead of drawing, you may knock, and everyone else gets one more turn.
- Nine-card golf. Use a three-by-three grid. A column of three matching cards scores zero.
- Eighteen holes. Play eighteen hands for a long game, like a full round of golf.
About the game
The age is our own suggestion: Peabody's suggestion (adding up a small layout and remembering hidden cards). Sources we read: Wikipedia: Golf (card game), pagat.com: Golf. Every word here is Peabody's own. Checked .