Golf Solitaire is one of the fastest solitaire games you can play — a single hand takes about five minutes, the layout is simple enough to read instantly, and the chain-clearing mechanic is immediately satisfying. The name comes from the scoring concept: the fewer draws from the stock you take, the better your score, exactly like fewer strokes on a golf course.
What is Golf Solitaire?
Golf Solitaire is a single-player card game played with a standard 52-card deck. Seven columns of five face-up cards form the tableau. A waste pile sits below with one starter card, and a stock holds the remaining 16 cards face-down. Your goal is to clear every tableau card by moving top cards onto the waste whenever they are one rank above or below the waste's current top card.
The key rule that sets Golf Solitaire apart from games like TriPeaks is the wrap: Ace and King are adjacent. An Ace can be played on a King, and a King can be played on an Ace. This creates long chain opportunities — if you spot a run like K, A, 2, 3, you can play them in sequence without drawing from the stock at all.
Win rate is around 40% with careful play, making Golf Solitaire genuinely rewarding rather than simply a game of chance. The stock draw penalty in scoring pushes you to think ahead rather than reach for new cards the moment a chain breaks.
How to play Golf Solitaire
Step 1 — Survey the layout
Seven columns of five face-up cards sit on the tableau. One card starts the waste pile. Sixteen cards wait face-down in the stock. Read all 35 tableau cards before your first move — it takes ten seconds and reveals every chain available.
Step 2 — Build chains off the waste top
The top card of the waste pile is your anchor. Any tableau column's top card that is one rank higher or lower than the waste top can be played onto it. After playing, the new waste top is the card you just moved — so a red 5 played onto a black 6 means you can now play any 4 or any 6. Chain as long as you can before the sequence breaks.
Step 3 — Use the Ace-King wrap
Unlike most solitaire games, Golf treats Ace and King as adjacent. A King can play onto an Ace, and an Ace can play onto a King. Spotting a K-A sequence in your columns is worth planning around — it lets you extend chains across the rank boundary that would otherwise block you.
Step 4 — Draw from stock when stuck
When no tableau top card is playable, click the stock to flip a new card to the waste. Each draw costs five points in the scoring, so use draws deliberately rather than reflexively. Before drawing, scan all seven column tops one more time — sometimes the new waste top you need is already on the tableau.
Step 5 — Prioritize long columns
Columns with all five cards still in place are time bombs — once a column is cleared its slot is gone, but the cards that were buried there had to go somewhere. Focus on reducing columns evenly rather than clearing one column completely while leaving six others mostly full.
The Golf Solitaire play area
The Golf Solitaire board is one of the simplest in solitaire. Seven tableau columns each hold five face-up cards stacked vertically, with only the top card of each column playable at any time. The visible face-up cards below the top are shown slightly offset so you can see what's coming.
In the header row you'll find the stock on the left (a face-down pile showing the count of remaining cards) and the waste next to it, showing the current top card. Cards you play from the tableau join the waste pile, changing its top card and potentially opening new chain moves.
Mr. Solitaire's Golf board highlights which tableau tops are currently playable — they glow gold when they can be played onto the current waste top. This removes the need to mentally scan every column on each move and lets you focus on planning the order of plays.
Available moves in Golf Solitaire
Golf Solitaire has the smallest move vocabulary of any common solitaire variant — just two move types.
Play a tableau top card. If the top card of any tableau column is one rank above or below the current waste top card, click it to move it to the waste. Aces wrap to Kings and Kings wrap to Aces. The new waste top is now the card you just played, and your next play must be adjacent to that.
Draw from stock. When no tableau top is playable, click the stock to flip the next card to the waste. The new waste top may open up chains you couldn't see before. Once the stock is empty, the game ends if any tableau cards remain.
Golf Solitaire strategy
Read the board before move one
All 35 tableau cards are face-up at the start. Take ten seconds to identify which columns have the highest concentration of cards you can chain. Look for columns where the top few cards form a natural sequence — those are your starting chains. Plan at least three moves ahead before clicking anything.
Count your draws as a budget
You have 16 draws from the stock. Each draw costs five points. Before drawing, estimate how many cards you still need to clear and how many draws you can afford. If you're near the end with cards remaining and no draws left, the game ends — so budget draws for the endgame, not the opening.
Clear short columns last
A column with one card left is almost certain to be cleared when it comes up in your chain. Don't spend a draw just to expose that last card — it will happen naturally. Instead, use draws to break open long columns where several cards are still buried.
Use the K-A wrap deliberately
The King-Ace wrap is Golf Solitaire's most powerful tool and the most overlooked by beginners. When the waste top is a King, check immediately for Aces on any column top. When the waste top is an Ace, look for Kings. Building chains through the wrap can extend sequences that otherwise look dead.
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Odds of winning Golf Solitaire
Golf Solitaire has a win rate of approximately 40% for careful players. This is considerably higher than Klondike (30–50% with unlimited undo, but much lower without) and far higher than Pyramid (0.5–2%). The complete information at the start — all 35 tableau cards visible — gives skilled players a real edge.
The key limiting factor is card distribution. If the tableau is packed with cards of similar ranks (many 7s, 8s, and 9s clustered together), chains break frequently and stock draws pile up. The best deals are ones where the rank distribution across columns is varied, allowing long alternating chains.
One tricky scenario is the isolated card: a low or high rank buried under several cards of the same rank, with no adjacent rank available in the other columns. Recognizing these dead ends early and routing around them is what separates 40% win rates from 20% win rates.
History of Golf Solitaire
Golf Solitaire's origin is unclear. It appears in card game books from the early twentieth century under various names — "Golf Patience" in British references, "Golf Solitaire" in American ones — suggesting parallel development rather than a single inventor. The golf scoring metaphor (fewer stock draws = lower score = better, like fewer strokes) was clearly central to the game from early on.
The digital version became widely known through Windows games collections in the 1990s and through online solitaire sites in the early 2000s. Its speed relative to Klondike — a hand lasts three to five minutes instead of fifteen — made it a natural fit for short-session play and contributed to its popularity on mobile platforms.
The King-Ace wrap rule is not universal. Some older published rulesets treat Ace as low only, meaning Ace cannot play onto a King. Most modern digital implementations, including Mr. Solitaire, use the wrap because it creates significantly more interesting chains and approximately doubles the achievable win rate.
Frequently asked questions
What is Golf Solitaire?
- Golf Solitaire is a single-player card game where you clear seven columns of face-up cards by playing their top cards onto a waste pile whenever the rank is one above or below the waste top. The Ace-King wrap is standard: Aces are adjacent to Kings. The game takes about five minutes per hand.
Can you win Golf Solitaire every time?
- No. Golf Solitaire has a win rate of roughly 40% with careful play. Deals where cards of similar ranks cluster in the same columns are very hard to clear because chains break frequently and you run out of stock draws before the tableau is empty.
Does Ace go on King in Golf Solitaire?
- Yes — in the standard modern ruleset, Aces and Kings are adjacent. An Ace can be played on a King and a King can be played on an Ace. This creates "wrap" chains that dramatically extend sequences. Some older printed rulesets treat Ace as low only; Mr. Solitaire uses the wrap because it makes the game significantly more interesting.
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Similar Solitaire games
TriPeaks Solitaire
A close relative — clear three peaks by playing cards one rank above or below the waste, with the same K-A wrap. More layout complexity, similar chain-building satisfaction.
Klondike Solitaire
The classic solitaire with foundations and alternating-color tableau building. Slower and more strategic than Golf, but the most-played solitaire variant in the world.
Pyramid Solitaire
Pair cards that sum to 13 to clear a pyramid. Very different mechanics from Golf but a similarly fast game — and significantly harder, with only a 0.5–2% win rate.
Canfield Solitaire
A reserve-pile variant with a random foundation base rank and wrapping suits. One of the hardest mainstream solitaire games at a ~3% win rate.