Golf card game rules and scoring

• Card values
• The deal
• A turn
• Ending a hole
• Other versions
• Scorecard

Golf is a card game where the low score wins. Each player has six cards laid out face down in two rows of three, and swaps cards in and out over the hand, trying to end with as few points as possible — a matching pair in the same column cancels to nothing. Each hand is a hole; play nine and the lowest total wins.

What the cards cost

Card	Points
2	−2
Ace	1
3 – 10	face value
Jack, Queen	10
King	0
A pair in the same columnTwo cards of the same rank, one above the other, score 0 — even a pair of 2s.	0

The deal

• Deal six cards to each player, face down, in two rows of three. Use one deck for up to four players, two for five to eight, and three beyond that.
• Put the rest face down as the stock, and turn its top card face up to start the discard pile.
• Each player turns any two of their own cards face up. The others stay hidden — from everyone, the owner included.

Taking a turn

• Draw one card: the top of the stock, or the top of the discard pile.
• Swap it for any card in your layout, face up or face down. The card you replace goes face up on the discard pile.
• If you drew from the stock and don't want the card, you can discard it instead. Some tables then make you turn one of your face-down cards up.
• A card taken from the discard pile has to go into your layout — you can't just put it back.

Ending a hole

• The hole ends as soon as one player's sixth card is face up. Many groups give everyone else one more turn first.
• Everyone turns over any face-down cards and adds up their layout.
• A standard game is nine holes, lowest total wins. Eighteen holes is a common longer game.

Common variants

• Jokers: add two jokers to the deck, worth −2 each.
• Going-out penalty: some tables penalise the player who ended the hole if anyone ties or beats their score.

Four-, eight- and nine-card Golf

• Four-card: a 2 × 2 layout. Players may knock to end the hand.
• Eight-card: four columns of two, played with a double deck and jokers.
• Nine-card: a 3 × 3 layout with three cards turned up to start. A full column of three matching cards scores 0.
• Ten-card: five columns of two, with at least two decks.