Golf - Card Game Rules
Jeux
Jeux de Cartes / Card Games

Introduction

Golf is a card game for two or more players, in which the object is to score as little as possible, as in the sport of Golf. Each player has a layout of cards, initially face down, which can be successively replaced by new cards drawn from the stock or discard pile.

The aim is to make a layout scoring as little as possible. The scores at the end of the play are sometimes considered as representing the number of strokes taken to play a hole of golf. It is common to play a series of 9 or sometimes 18 deals or 'holes', at the end of which the player with the lowest total score wins.

Although the card game Golf is quite widespread in North America, Britain, and perhaps other English speaking countries, it is seldom found in card game books.

Golf is also sometimes known as Polish Polka or Polish Poker; the 4-card game is known by some players as Turtle, the 6-card game as Hara Kiri, and the 9-card game as Crazy Nines.

The game of Golf described on this page has no connection with the Solitaire (Patience) game of the same name.

There are two main forms of the game, which I shall call 4-card Golf and 6-card Golf, according to the number of cards in each player's layout.

4-card Golf is sometimes played with power cards that enable a player perform an action such as peeking at a card, swapping a card with another player, and so on.

There are also 8-card, 9-card and 10-card forms of Golf, but these seem to be less widespread.

A major difference between versions of Golf is in the method of ending the play.

The first method, used most often in 4-card Golf, is that if you think you have the lowest score you can use your turn to knock instead of drawing to replace one of your cards. This causes the play to end after each of the other players has taken one more turn.

The second method, most often used with the 6-card and larger layouts, is that whenever a layout card is replaced, the new card is placed face up. The play ends as soon as any player's entire layout is face up.

Four-Card Golf

Players, Cards and Deal

A standard 52-card pack is used, and the number of players could in theory be from two to around eight or more, though the game is said to be best for about four. With a large number of players, say eight or more, two packs may be shuffled together. The deal and play are clockwise.

The dealer deals four cards to each player, one at a time. Each player's cards are to be arranged face down in a square. The remaining undealt cards are placed face-down in the center of the table to form a drawing stock.

The top card of the stock is turned face up and placed beside the stock to start the discard pile.

Before play begins, each player may look once at the two nearest cards of his or her square layout, without showing them to anyone else.

After this, the layout cards may not be looked at again until they are discarded during play or scored at the end of the play.

The Play

The player to the dealer's left begins, and the turn to play passes clockwise. At your turn you must either draw the top card of the face-down stock, or draw the top discard, or knock to cause the play to end.

If you draw a card, you may use it to replace one of the four cards of your layout, but you are not allowed to look at any of your layout cards before deciding which to replace.

You place the drawn card face-down in your layout, being careful to remember what it is, and discard the card that previously occupied that position, putting it face-up on top of the discard pile.

It is then the next player's turn.

If you draw a card from the stock and decide that you do not want to use it in your layout, you may simply discard the drawn card face up on the discard pile, and it is then the next player's turn.

However, if you choose to take the discard, you must use it to replace one of your layout cards - you cannot simply put it back on the discard pile, leaving the situation as it was.

If you knock, you do nothing else in your turn. Each of the other players in order has one more normal turn (in which they draw a card from the stock or discard pile but cannot knock) and then the play ends.

Note that if you look at any face down card in your layout, that card must be discarded replaced with the card you drew. There is no way to check the value of a face down card and leave it in place.

Scoring

At the end of the play, each player's square of four cards is turned face-up and scored as follows.

Each numeral card scores face value (Ace=1, Two=2, etc.)

Each Jack or Queen scores 10 points.

Each King scores zero points.

The player who has the lowest cumulative score after nine deals wins.

Variations of Four-Card Golf

Looking at cards

Some play that you may choose any two of your cards to look at before play begins - not necessarily the two cards nearest to you.

Some play that you may only look at one of your four cards at the start.

Some play that you may look at any of your four cards during the play, at a cost of 1 point for each occasion when you look at a card, added to your score at the end of the hand.

Some play that you may look at the two cards you saw at the beginning, or their replacements in your layout, as often as you like during the game.

Some play that you hold these two cards in your hand, so that you (but not the other players) can see them at any time.

Some even play that you hold all four cards in your hand, so eliminating both the need to remember any cards, and removing the uncertainty about your two unseen cards.

Replacing cards

Some play that the two cards that you did not look at to begin with can be replaced only once. The two cards that you see at the start can be replaced as often as you wish.

Turning cards face up; ending the play This variation is characteristic of Golf with six or more cards, but is sometimes played in four-card Golf. Whenever a card is replaced, the new card is placed face up in the layout.

When all the cards belonging to one player are face up, the play will end after each of the other players has had one more turn.

Some play that all four cards begin face down and a card that is face up cannot be replaced.

If you replace a face down card, the replacement card is placed face up.

If you draw a card from the stock and discard it, you must turn one of the cards of your layout face up, and this card cannot subsequently be replaced.

The result is that on every turn, one more card of your layout is exposed.

The game ends when all players have exposed all of their cards.

Alternative methods of scoring the cards

Some play that if your layout contains a pair of equal cards (such as two nines), the score for that pair of cards is zero.

If there are three equal cards, only two of them are cancelled in this way; if all four cards are equal the whole layout scores zero.

Some play that pairs score zero only if the cards are together in a row or column; equal cards that are in diagonally opposite corners do not cancel.

In some variations, queens are given a higher score of 12, 13 or even 20 points instead of 10; in one variation the spade queen scores 40 points while the others score 10; in this same variation eights score zero.

Some play that one-eyed jacks are wild - they can be paired with any card, making the pair score zero.

Some play that jacks score zero, like kings. Others play that jacks score zero, queens 12 and kings 13.

Some play that jacks score 20 points, and that when a jack is discarded the next player misses a turn - the turn to play skips to the following player.

Some add two jokers to the deck; the score for a joker is minus 5, so the total score for a layout can be negative.

Special score for the knocker

Some play that a player who knocks but turns out not to have the lowest score is penalized. There are several alternative versions of this, played by different groups:

The knocker adds a penalty of 10 points.

The knocker's score for the hand is doubled and 5 points added.

The knocker takes a score equal to the highest scoring player for that hand.

If the knocker's score is lowest, some players give the knocker the benefit of a reduced score. Some play that the knocker scores zero if lowest.

According to others the knocker's score is reduced by the number of players if lowest and doubled otherwise - for example in a four-player game a player knocks with 3 points, and scores -1 point (3 - 4) if this is lowest, but 6 points (2 x 3) otherwise.

Some play with a pot to which all contribute equally at the start.

The knocker collects this pot if his score is lowest and doubles it otherwise. To prevent such payments becoming too large, it may be wise to agree a maximum amount that can be won from or paid to the pot.

End of the game

If you want a longer game you can play 18 holes (deals) instead of 9.

Instead of playing a fixed number of holes, you can agree to play until one player's score reaches or exceeds 100 (or other target agreed in advance). The player with the lowest score then wins.

Golf with Power Cards

In this group of Four-Card Golf variants, several cards are designated as power cards which can have special effects when drawn from the stock.

They go by various names such as Cambio or Pablo or Cabo or Cactus or Dacz.

At least two proprietary versions have been published using specially designed cards: 

Cabo appeared in 2010 and Kombio in 2019.

The basic rules are the same as in Four-Card Golf. Each player begins with four cards face down - in a row or in a square formation - and privately looks at two of them.

A turn beings by drawing the top card from the stock or from the discard pile and ends by discarding a card face up on top of the discard pile.

The drawn card can be used to replace a card in the player's layout without first looking at the card to be replaced. As usual the aim is to achieve a low scoring layout.

Some cards are designated as power cards. If one of these is drawn from the face down stock it can either be used as though it were a normal card, or its special power can be used after which it must be discarded.

A discarded power card cannot be used as a power card again - if it is drawn from the discard pile by the next player it can only be used as a normal card.

Some powers may cause a player's layout to gain or lose cards, so in some versions players may end the game with more or fewer than four face down cards.

I have received descriptions of several versions of this power card variant, and from the sources of those accounts it seems likely that it originated in Spain or Latin America.

The Spanish word cambiomeans exchange, which is one of the possible powers, so this could have been the original name of this variant. The main differences between the versions are in the properties of the special cards, the point values of the cards and the way the game is ended.

Ashbir Dhillon describes a simple form of this game played in Malaysia using a standard pack of 52 cards plus two jokers.

Card values:

Ace to 10 face value, all picture cards and jokers are power cards and count 10 each.

Jack: look privately at one of your own cards

Queen: look privately at one card belonging to an opponent

King: swap one of your cards with one card belonging to an opponent without looking at either card

Joker: require one opponent to shuffle his or her cards, so that they no longer know which is which

There is no knocking. Play continues until the stock pile is exhausted. The player with the lowest score wins.

John Roberts describes a version called Pablo, also played with a 52-card pack plus two jokers.

Sevens and eights are power cards.

Card values:

Ace to 10 face value, picture cards (JQK) 10, jokers -5.

A player may use a draw card to replace two or more equal ranked cards in his or her layout.

If this is successful the equal cards are all discarded and the player's layout has fewer cards than before.

If the cards the player tries to replace turn out not to be equal they remain in the layout along with the card that was supposed to replace them.

The player does not discard in that turn and the player's layout now has one more card than before.

A player who draws a seven from the stock may perform a swap. The player exchanges one card in an opponent's for one card in his or her own layout.

The player chooses the opponent's card, then looks at it privately, then performs the swap without look at the card that is given to the opponent in exchange. The seven is then discarded.

A player who draws an eight may look privately at any one card - either in the player's own layout or in an opponent's layout. The eight is then discarded.

To end the play a player says 'Pablo' at the end of their turn. Each of the other players has one more turn and then the layouts are scored. The player who said 'Pablo' scores -10 points if he or she has the lowest score.

If not, the Pablo player scores the value of his or her layout plus the the value of the highest scoring opponent's layout. Either way, all other players score the values of their layouts.

If Pablo ties for lowest score with another player everyone scores the value of their layout.

Further deals are played until a player's score reaches 100 points or more at which time the player with the lowest score wins.

Andrew Soule describes a version called 'Cumbia' played with a 52-card pack without jokers.

Card values:

2 of diamonds -10, red kings -5, black kings 0, queens 12, jacks 11, other cards face value.

Power cards: 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, J. These cannot be placed in a player's layout: the player must either perform the action or just discard the card.

4 or 5: The player looks privately at one of their own cards

6 or 7: The player looks privately at an opponent's card

10: The player switches any two cards belonging to any players without looking at them.

Jack: The player looks at one of their own cards and one card belonging to an opponent and may switch them if they wish.

Whenever a card is discarded, any player may take one matching card from any layout and discard it on top of the discard. The player may not look at the card first.

If it does match and it was taken from an opponent's layout, the player who discarded it then moves one card, without looking at it, from his or her own layout to the opponent's layout.

So the successful player's layout is always reduced by one card.

If the second discarded card did not match, the player who moved it replaces the card in the layout it came from and if it was taken from an opponent's layout receives a 10-point penalty. 

Note: a red king does not match a black king and the 2 does not match another 2: the card values must be equal.

Note: only one extra card can be discarded as a match on top of a regular discard.

To end the play a player calls 'Cumbia' at any time during their turn. Each player gets one more turn and then everyone scores the value of their layout. There is no special bonus for having the lowest score in a deal.

After an agreed number of deals - for example 7 - the player with the lowest total score wins.

Chris Smyth describes a version called 'Cabo' played with a 52-card pack without jokers.

Card values:

king of diamonds 0, other kings 13, queens 12, jacks 11, 10 down to ace face value. 7, 8, 9, 10, J and Q are power cards whose abilities are remembered using rhymes as follows:

Seven or eight, know your fate: look at one of your own cards and then put it back (only you get to see it)

Nine or ten, know a friend: look at one card from someone else and then put it back (only you get to see it)

Jack or Queen, switch between: trade the places of any two cards on the table (excluding draw piles)

On any turn, instead of adding the drawn card to the layout or using its power if any, you may match it with an equal card or cards from any layout(s).

All kings match each other, including diamonds.

All the matched cards are discarded, followed by the card that initiated the matching.

Any matched cards from opponents' layouts are replaced by cards from your own layout, without looking at the replacement cards.

If you attempt to match a card that turns out not to be equal to the matching card, the card remains in place and as a penalty, for each such failure you draw an extra card from the stock and add it to your layout without looking at it.

To end the play a player calls 'Cabo' at any time during their turn. Each player gets one more turn and then everyone scores the value of their layout. The play also ends if a player gets rid of all the cards from their layout, or if the draw pile runs out.

Connor Chew describes a version from Vancouver, Canada known as 'Cactus'. It is played with a 52 card pack without jokers and is said to be best for two players, though three or more can play.

No card is turned face up at the end of the deal: the first player must draw from the stock and their discard starts the discard pile.

Card values:

Ace: 1 King: 0 Queen: 10 Jack: 10, other cards face value.

Power cards are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen.

6, 7, or 8: the player looks privately at one of their own cards.

9, 10 or Jack: the player looks privately at an opponent's card.

Queen: the player exchanges any one of their own cards with one of their opponent’s cards, without looking at either.

Ace, King, 2, 3, 4, and 5 have no power and no unique ability is granted when they are discarded.

A player can use their turn to employ the power of the card face up in the discard pile if the previous player hasn’t used its power already. Effectively their turn consists of picking up the card using its power and discarding the same card again.

For example if player A draws a 2 from the deck and exchanges it for a Jack in his layout, then player B can use her turn to apply the power of the discarded Jack to look at one of player A's cards.

At any point in the game, regardless of whose turn it is, a player can discard a card that matches the top card in the discard pile. The quickest player to discard their card can do so without it counting as a turn. If a player is mistaken and attempts to discard a card that doesn't match the discard pile, they take back their card and draw an additional two cards.

A round concludes when one player calls 'Cactus' at the end of their turn. Their opponents then have one more turn each.

If you call 'Cactus' and after everyone has taken their last turn your layout has the lowest point value, you score nothing. If any opponent has a point value equal to or lower than yours you add the value of your layout plus an extra 10 penalty points to your score.

If your opponent calls 'Cactus' and after your last turn your layout has a higher point value than the caller's, you add the value of your layout to your score. If your point value is equal to or lower than the caller's, you score nothing.

The 'winner' of each round plays first in the next round.

The winner is the player with the lowest value layout. The caller loses ties.

In case of a tie for lowest between two opponents of the caller, they draw cards to decide who will start the next round.

Multiple rounds are played until a player reaches 100 points. At this point the player with the lowest score wins the game.

In a game with more than two players there could be a tie for lowest: in that case further rounds can be played until there is a single winner.

Kamila A. Śledź describes a version from Poland where it is known as 'Dacz', which has no meaning in Polish but might be a phonetic version of the English word 'Dutch' or might possibly derived from the Russian word 'дача'.

In this variant:

At the start, everyone is dealt 4 cards in a row and peeks at two of them.

Playing a Jack as a power card allows the player to swap any two cards belonging to any players without looking at them.

Playing a Queen as a power card allows the player to peek privately at any one card, either their own or an other player's.

Aces score 1, 2-10 face value, Jacks 11, Queens 12, black Kings 13, red Kings 0.

To end the play a player calls 'dacz' (or 'Dutch') at the end of their turn, after which everyone else has one more turn and then everyone scores the value of their layout.

If the player who said 'dacz' does not have the lowest value layout, they add 10 to their score if another player's layout has a lower value, or they add 5 if another player ties with them for lowest.

The game ends when any player's total score reaches 100 or more points, and the player with the least points wins.

Six Card Golf

In this version, a pair of equal cards in a column scores zero. Therefore the main object of the game is to make pairs, while keeping unpaired cards as low as possible.

Players, Cards and Deal

Two, three or four players use a standard 52-card pack. With more than four players, a second pack is added, and a third pack if there are more than eight.

The deal and play are clockwise.

The dealer deals six cards to each player, one at a time, arranging them face down in a rectangle in front of each player.

The remaining undealt cards are placed face-down in the center of the table to form a drawing stock.

The top card of the stock is turned face up and placed beside the stock to start the discard pile.

Before play begins, each player turns any two of the cards in his layout face up.

The other layout cards may not be looked at until they are discarded or turned up in the course of the play, or scored at the end of the play.

The Play

The player to the dealer's left begins, and the turn to play passes clockwise.

At your turn you must either draw the top card of the face-down stock, or draw the top discard.

You may use the card you draw to replace any one of the six cards of your layout, but if you choose to replace a face-down card you are not allowed to look at it before deciding to replace it.

You place the new card face-up in your layout, and the card that previously occupied that position is placed face-up on top of the discard pile. It is then the next player's turn.

If you draw a card from the face-down card from the stock, you may decide that you do not want it anywhere in your layout. In that case you simply discard the drawn card face-up on the discard pile, and it is the next player's turn.

It is, however, illegal to draw the top card of the discard pile and discard the same card again, leaving the situation unchanged: if you choose to take the discard, you must use it to replace one of your layout cards.

The play ends as soon as the last of a player's six cards is face up. The hand is then scored.

Scoring

At the end of the play, each player's layout of six cards is turned face-up and scored as follows.

Each ace counts 1 point.
Each two counts minus two points.
Each numeral card from 3 to 10 scores face value.
Each Jack or Queen scores 10 points.
Each King scores zero points.

A pair of equal cards in the same column scores zero points for the column (even if the equal cards are twos).

The player who has the lowest cumulative score after nine deals wins.

Variations of Six-Card Golf

Cards

Some players use two decks with four, three or even only two players. This makes little difference to the game and reduces the chance of running out of cards.

Some players include jokers - two per deck. In this case twos are worth 2 points and jokers are -2.

Turning up cards at the start

Some play that the two cards turned up must be in the same column of the layout; others play the opposite, rule that the two cards turned up must not be in the same column.

Some require one card to be turned up from the central column and one from one of the outer columns.

Some play that after turning up two cards, you may rearrange the cards of your layout (without looking at any of the face-down cards) so as to place your face-up cards in any desired positions.

Some play that no cards are turned up at the start; instead each of the players may look once at the row of three cards nearest to them, replacing them face down.

Turning up cards during the play

Some play that you may use your turn simply to turn one of your face-down cards face up.

Some play that if you draw a card from the stock and decide to discard it rather than placing it in your layout, you must also turn one of your face-down cards face up, unless you have only one face-down card remaining, in which case you may leave it face-down.

Ending the play

Some play that you may use your turn to bring the play to an end by turning all your remaining face-down cards face up.

Many play that after a player's last card is exposed, each of the other players plays one more turn before the hand is scored.

Scoring

Some players award a negative score, for example -10 points, for four equal cards arranged in two columns (for example two columns each containing two sevens).

When two or more decks are used, some award a higher negative score, for example -20 points, for a layout of six equal cards.

Some award minus 20 points for four equal cards together in a square block. In this variant, if playing with a double deck, a block of 6 equal cards should score minus 40 points since it contains two (overlapping) squares.

Some play that a pair of equal cards anywhere in the layout score zero - they do not have to be in the same column.

Some players include two jokers in the deck, which according to different players may be worth -5, -3, -2 or zero points. In this case the twos are worth +2 points, not -2. Some also play that one-eyed jacks are worth zero.

When two twos (or jokers if used) appear together in a column, some players allow them to keep their negative value (-4 for the column if each card is -2).

Some award a higher negative value when four such cards are arranged in two columns - for example when playing with two decks, four jokers in two columns count -20.

End of the game

As in Four-card Golf, the game can continue for 18 holes instead of nine

Eight Card Golf

This game is very similar to Six-Card Golf, but each player's layout has four columns of two cards rather than three.

Bill Whitnack's former Card Games web site described a version using a double 52-card deck with four jokers (108 cards). More decks and jokers can be added if there are more than four players.

The dealer deals eight cards face down to each player, arranged in grid four cards wide and two high, and places the next card face up on the table to start the discard pile, with the remainder of the deck stacked face down next to it to form a drawing stock.

The player to dealer's left begins and the turn to play passes clockwise.

Each player begins his or her first turn by turning one column of two cards face up, as in the following diagram.

The player continues by drawing either the unknown top card of the stock or the face up top card of the discard pile.

The player then has three options:

1. Use the drawn card to replace one of the face up cards in the player's layout, and discard the replaced card face up on the discard pile.

2. Use the drawn card to replace one of the face down cards in the player's layout. The card to be replaced must be chosen without first looking at, and must be discarded face up on the discard pile, even if it is a card the player would have liked to keep.

3. If the card was drawn from the face down stock, discard it face up on top of the discard pile and turn one of the face down cards in the player's layout face up.

After each player has had one turn everyone will have two or three cards face up. Play continues clockwise.

Now each turn consists of drawing the top card of the stock pile or the discard pile and using it according to any one of the three options above.

A player whose layout has only one face down card remaining has an additional option: to draw a card from the stock and discard it without turning over the last card of the layout.

When a player turns the last card of his or her layout face up, each of the other players has one more turn.

Then all remaining face down cards in all players' layouts are turned face up and the layouts are scored as follows:

Jokers Minus 5 points each
Kings 0 points
Queens, Jacks 10 points each
Aces 1 point each
Numeral cards 2-10 Face value
Pair in a column 0 points
Two equal pairs in any two columns Minus 10 points

A negative total score is possible. Nine deals are played (corresponding to nine holes of a golf course), and the player with the lowest total score is the winner.

Examples of scoring:

First column 8 (6+2), second column 0 (pair), third column 1 (0+1), fourth column 0 (pair), total 9.

First column 1 (1+0), second column 0 (pair), third column 10 (6+4), fourth column -10 (pair equal to the pair in column 2), total 1.

Variant

Some allow a player to turn any two cards face up at their first turn, and play that once both cards of a column are face up, those cards can no longer be exchanged.

Nine Card Golf

This game, also known as Crazy Nines or simply Nines, is played with two or more decks of cards.

Each player is dealt nine cards in a three by three square, and turns three cards face up to begin the play.

The playing mechanism and scoring are essentially the same as in Six-Card Golf, except that a pair of equal cards does not score zero. Instead, a column of three equal cards scores zero.

As with the other versions, there are many variations.

Some play that only two cards are turned face up at the start.

Some play that twos score +2 rather than -2 and include jokers that score -2.

Some play that queens score 12 rather than 10.

Some play that not only a vertical row of three equal cards scores zero, but also a horizontal row, or a diagonal line of three equal cards.

Some also play that a block of four equal cards together in a square give a negative score, such as -25.

Some play that the player with the lowest score for a hole scores zero, and that if the player who first exposed all their cards (known as the caller) does not have the lowest score, this player adds the score of the lowest scoring player to their own. I don't know how ties are resolved in this method.

Players need to agree what happens if you have two intersecting rows of equal cards or a row intersecting a square block, if you score a bonus for a block.

Some solve this by immediately removing from the layout any line or block of equal cards.

Play continues using only the remaining part of the layout, keeping the positions from which cards were removed empty.

If you prefer to leave all nine cards in place, you need to agree how to score layouts such as these:

example (a): intersecting lines

example (b): block overlapping line

Stephen Moraco has described a version of 9-card golf in which every pair of equal cards that are horizontally or vertically adjacent scores zero.

The same card can be used as part of more than one pair, so equal rows and columns will also score zero since they consist of two pairs.

On his Nines page (archive copy), Jesse Fuchs described a version with no cards turned up at the start. Queens count zero, kings ten and jokers -2.

Rows and columns of three equal cards are removed when formed.

Ten Card Golf

At least two decks are needed for this game. Each player is dealt ten cards, arranged into five columns of two, and turns any two cards face up. The play is the same as in Six-Card Golf.

Golf - Card Game Score Sheet