Golf

How to play Golf

Goal

Have the lowest score. Swap cards into your grid to bring its total down, and pair up cards in a column to cancel them out.

The deal

• Everyone is dealt 6 cards face down, in two rows of 3. Nobody looks at them. Everyone turns two of their own face up to start.
• The rest is the stock, face down, with its top card turned up to start the discard pile.

On your turn

1. Draw the top card of the stock, or take the top card of the discard pile.
2. Put it in place of any card in your grid, face up, and discard the card it replaces.
3. Or, with a card from the stock, just discard it.

Scoring

• When someone has every card face up, everyone else gets one more turn. Then all remaining cards are turned over and scored.
• Each card counts its value: an Ace is 1, a Two is 2, other number cards their number, a Jack or Queen 10, a King 0.
• Two cards of the same rank in one column cancel out and score nothing.
• The game is 9 holes, one deal each. The lowest total after the last hole wins.

Variations

Picked in the lobby before the game starts.

• Holes: 9. The host can also choose 1, 3 or 18.
• Cards each: 6. The host can also choose 4, for a quicker grid of two by two.
• Flip after a discard: Off. Discarding a card from the stock turns nothing up. On, discarding a card from the stock means turning one of yours up too, which speeds the hole along.
• Jokers: None. The host can add two per deck, each worth −2.
• Twos: 2. The host can make them worth −2. A pair in a column still scores nothing.
• Going out doubles: Off. Going out first carries no risk. On, whoever turns their last card first has their score doubled unless it’s the lowest.
• Deck: 52 cards. The usual deck. On the Deck tab, the host can add suits (Stars, Moons, Crowns, Towers), add number cards past 10 or shuffle more than one deck together.