Golf Card Game Rules: How to Play 6-Card, 4-Card and 9-Card Golf

Golf is a quick card game for two or more players in which, as in the sport it is named after, the lowest score wins. Each player has a grid of face-down cards and tries to swap them for lower ones and to make pairs that cancel out. A full game is usually nine "holes" (rounds). Rules vary from family to family; below is the classic version and the most common variants.

What you need

• 2 to 4 players: one standard 52-card deck. 5 or more players: two decks.
• Paper and pen for the score.

6-card golf: setup

1. Deal six cards face down to each player. Players arrange them in two rows of three without looking.
2. Place the rest of the deck face down as the stock and turn the top card face up to start the discard pile.
3. Each player turns two of his or her six cards face up.

Playing a turn

1. Take either the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile.
2. Swap it with any one of your six cards (face up or face down); the replaced card goes face up onto the discard pile.
3. Or, if you drew from the stock, you may discard the drawn card instead of using it.

Cards placed into your grid stay face up.

Ending a round

The round ends when one player has all six cards face up. Every other player gets one more turn, then all remaining cards are turned up and scored.

Scoring (6-card golf)

Card	Points
Ace	1
2	−2
3 to 10	Face value
Jack, Queen	10
King	0
A pair of equal cards in the same column	0 for the pair

After nine rounds, the player with the lowest total wins.

4-card golf

Each player has a 2×2 grid. At the start, players peek at their two nearest cards once and then keep them face down; play continues the same way, and a player who thinks he or she has the lowest total can "knock" to give everyone one final turn. Matching pairs in a column cancel.

9-card golf

Each player has a 3×3 grid and turns over three cards at the start, or two in some versions. In many house rules, three matching cards in a row or column cancel to zero. Rounds take longer and scores swing more.

Popular house rules

• Jokers added as −2 or −5 points.
• Four of a kind (two matching column pairs) scores a bonus, such as −10.
• Penalty for the player who goes out if he or she does not have the lowest score in the round.
• Kings count as zero in some versions and as 10 in others.

Agree on the variant before the first deal; that avoids most arguments at the table.