Golf is a great social group card game that can be enjoyed by many players.
Keep your score low through nine holes (rounds) to give yourself a chance to win.
Find the video tutorial and written explanation for how to play six card golf, followed by nine card golf, below.
Six Card Golf Tutorial
Needed
54 card deck (jokers included); two to four players (if playing with more than four players, add additional card decks); pen and paper for scorekeeping.
Deal
Each player is dealt six cards. The top card of the remaining deck is flipped up to start a discard pile.
Setup
Cards remain face down in three columns with two cards per column.
Objective
Score the lowest amount of points by matching cards within a column or keeping unmatched cards low in value through nine holes.
Game Play
Play begins with the player left of the dealer. On a player’s first turn, he/she will flip over two cards. The player must decide whether to take the top showing card on the discard pile or draw the top card of the deck. The player then decides to switch the card for one of his/her cards or discard the drawn card.
Play continues clockwise until a player has all his/her cards facing up. At this time, each other player gets one more turn. After a player’s last turn, any cards still facing down get flipped up.
Scoring
Matching cards in a column scores zero points. A joker is negative 2 points. A king is zero points. An ace is 1 point. Cards 2-10 are worth face value. The queens and jacks are each 10 points.
Nine Card Golf Tutorial
Needed
Two 54 card decks (jokers included); two to four players (if playing with more than four players, add additional card decks); pen and paper for scorekeeping.
Deal
Each player is dealt nine cards, one card at a time. Players will not look at the cards they are dealt. The remaining deck is placed into the middle and the top card is flipped up to start a discard pile. Each player will arrange their cards in a three by three grid.
Objective
The object of the game is to score the lowest amount of points. Each card has a point value that is scored at the end of the round if it is unmatched. Matched cards result in no points. To match cards, players will need three cards with the same number in a column.
Game Play
On a player's first turn, the player will flip over two cards from their layout. The two card flip is only done on a player's first turn of a round. The player will then choose to draw the top card from the deck, or the top card of the discard pile.
When drawing from the deck, the player can replace a card in their layout with the drawn card and discard the replaced card, or discard the drawn card. When drawing from the discard pile, the player can replace a card in their layout with the drawn card and discard the replaced card. Once a player discards, the play moves clockwise left to the next player.
Play continues this way until a player has all their cards facing up. Once a player has all their cards face up it triggers the end of the round and each other player gets one more turn. If a player still has face down cards after their last turn, the face down cards are flipped up.
Scoring
Players will score points based on the cards in their final layout. Three matching cards in a column score zero points, a joker is negative two points, a king is zero points, an ace is one point, cards 2-10 are worth face value, and the queens and jacks are each ten points.
Winning
The scores are recorded. The game is played over nine rounds. The player with the lowest score after nine rounds wins the game!
Rules
When a player replaces a card, the replaced card has to be discarded.
A player can replace a face up card in their layout if wanted
If the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new draw deck.
The game can be played that if a player gets four matching cards in a square on their layout, it is worth negative 25 points.