Golf Solitaire — Play Free Online

Sports

Golf Solitaire is a quick card game where you clear the layout by chaining cards one rank apart. Play it free in your browser.

Golf Solitaire is a quick card puzzle that has nothing to do with clubs or fairways. Despite the sports label it carries on this site, it is a solitaire variant: you clear a layout of cards by chaining them onto a single pile, and a game usually runs a few minutes.

It is a calm change of pace if you arrived for the jumping games on Doodle Jump. Nothing falls, nothing times out, and no reflexes are needed. You are only looking a few moves ahead, which makes it a good break between runs of something twitchier.

How to play

In the traditional game, the cards are dealt face up in columns, with a stock pile set aside. You turn one card from the stock to start a waste pile. After that, you may move any exposed card from the columns onto the waste if its rank is exactly one higher or one lower than the card on top. When nothing fits, you flip the next stock card and try again. You win by emptying every column, and the fewer stock cards you burn, the better the result.

The page lists arrow keys or WASD plus the mouse, and tap or swipe on a phone. In practice a card game like this is driven by pointing: click or tap the card you want to play, or the stock to draw. Try the mouse first and use the keys only if the build responds to them.

Rules differ slightly between versions, mainly on whether a king and an ace count as neighbours, so check the first couple of moves to see how this one treats them.

Tips

Before you play a card, scan for runs. If a column holds a 7, 6 and 5, you can clear them in sequence, so keep a matching card on the waste for as long as you can.
Do not rush through the stock. Each draw changes the top card, so check what it opens up before you commit.
Look at what is buried under a column before you dig into it. Cards that sit on top of a needed rank are your real obstacle.
Choose the move that sets up the longest chain, not the one that merely clears a card now.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

The site is mostly action, so this one stands apart. Helix Jump is also a short, simple loop, but it relies on timing rather than planning. Bouncy Basketball is another sports-labelled pick, and it is played in real time with two players if you want company. For something that asks you to think ahead, the puzzle-minded Fireboy and Watergirl is the closest cousin.

Golf Solitaire suits short sessions, a mouse or a touchscreen, and anyone who wants a quiet round between faster games. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.

Questions about Golf Solitaire

What is the goal of Golf Solitaire?

You clear the cards laid out on the table by moving them onto a waste pile, one at a time. A card can be played when its rank is one higher or one lower than the top card of the pile. Drawing from the stock gives you a new top card when you get stuck.

How do I control it?

The page lists the mouse for aiming and selecting, with arrow keys or WASD, and tap or swipe on phones. Card games like this are normally played by clicking or tapping a card.