Golf, also known as One Foundation, is a

patience (or forbearance) is the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience may involve perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in disrespect/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when face ...

or solitaire

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

where players try to earn the lowest number of points (as in

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

, the sport) over the course of nine deals (or "

holes A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

", also borrowing from golf terminology). It has a

tableau Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled '' Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * ''Tableau vi ...

of 35 face-up cards and a higher ratio of

skill A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...

luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

than most other solitaire card games. Its easy game-play also makes it within easy reach of first-timers, while still offering scope for strategic play.

Rules

Setup

From a standard 52-card deck, 7 columns of 5 cards each are dealt, all face up and with indices visible. This is the tableau. One additional card is dealt as the base of the foundation. The remaining 16 cards are turned face down to form the stock.

Play

Rules are as follows: * Only the topmost card in each column (closest to the player) may be removed from the tableau. When it is removed, the card beneath becomes available for play. * Cards may be moved from the tableau to the foundation if they are either one rank higher or one rank lower than the top card of the foundation, regardless of suit, but nothing may be played on top of a King. * Cards rank A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K. There is no "wrapping" (Ace on a King, or King on an Ace) in the strict form of Golf. * Whenever there are no possible plays, turn cards up one at a time from the stock to the foundation and resume playing cards from the tableau when possible. * There is no redeal. The game is over when the stock is exhausted and no more moves are available.

Scoring

Player scores one point for each card remaining in the tableau after the stock has run out. If the tableau is cleared, player scores a negative point for every card left in the stock. Game is nine "holes" (deals) and a score of 45 or lower is considered par, with a score of zero or lower being perfect.

Impossible tableaus

If a tableau is dealt that would make it impossible for the player to clear all of the cards (e.g. if all queens are covered by kings), then the cards may be reshuffled and redealt.

Variations

To make the game easier, common variations on these rules include: * Queens may be played on top of Kings. * Turning the corner is permitted so that a King can be played on top of an Ace, and vice versa. This variation is commonly called Putt Putt. * One or both of the Jokers may be added to the deck and used as wild cards that represent any value. * The foundation pile can start off empty, so players can choose one of the exposed cards to move them to the foundation for a "head-start". Many variants exist which utilize the same style of game-play as Golf, but adjust the starting layout. The most well-known ones including Tri Peaks, Black Hole, and Pyramid Golf (also called Escalator). Multiple decks may also be used to create larger tableaus.

Multiplayer Golf

Golf Patience can also be played as a competitive game for two or more players, either by playing a hole simultaneously and calculating their total score for 18 holes, or using match-play scoring which keeps track of how many holes you are ahead or behind your opponent (e.g. "two up" or "three down")."Golf" (p.229-230) in ''The Complete Book of Card Games'' by Peter Arnold, Hamlyn Publishing, 2010. Spit is a real-time game for two players which employs a similar concept of game-play as Golf.