Card Golf

Overview

Card Golf is a low-score card game. Every card left in your grid at the end of a round adds its value to your total, and the lowest cumulative score after nine rounds wins.

Your cards are laid out in a grid of two rows. Most start face down. During the round you draw, swap and reveal cards to reduce what your grid will score.

The three modes

• 4 Card Golf — 2×2 grid, 2 players (you and one AI), 52-card deck, no jokers.
• 6 Card Golf — 2×3 grid, 4 players, 54 cards including two jokers.
• 8 Card Golf — 2×4 grid, 4 players, 54 cards including two jokers.

The rules are otherwise identical across the three, except for the peek and knock behaviour described below.

Card values

• Joker — −2
• King — 0
• Ace — 1
• Number cards — face value
• Jack and Queen — 10 each

Matching columns

The grid is always two rows deep, so a column is exactly two cards. If both cards in a column share a rank, the column scores 0 regardless of what those cards are individually.

Jokers never pair. A joker cannot cancel a column; it scores its own −2.

The opening peek

Each round begins by tapping any two of your own face-down cards to look at them, then confirming.

In 6 Card and 8 Card, those two cards stay face up for the rest of the round. In 4 Card, they flip back down a few seconds after you look, and are not shown again until scoring.

Taking a turn

Draw the top card of the face-down stock, or take the face-up card from the discard pile. Swap it into one of your slots; the card it replaces goes face up onto the discard pile.

A card drawn from the stock may be discarded instead of used. A card taken from the discard pile must be swapped in.

When the stock runs out, the discard pile is turned over and reshuffled, keeping its top card in place.

Knocking

Only 4 Card Golf has knocking. On your turn you may knock instead of continuing; every other player then takes one final turn, after which all grids are revealed and scored.

If the player who knocked does not have the lowest score that round, 10 penalty points are added to their round total. A round that ends because a player revealed their whole grid is not a knock and carries no penalty.

In 6 Card and 8 Card there is no knock. A round ends only when a player has revealed their entire grid.

Scoring the match

At the end of a round every card is turned face up, matching columns cancel to 0, and each player's round total is added to their running score. After nine rounds, the lowest cumulative total wins.

Controls

Tap two of your own cards to peek at the start of a round, then confirm. On your turn, tap the closed pile to draw or the open pile to take the face-up card, then tap a slot to swap it in — or discard a stock draw. In 4 Card Golf the knock button appears on your turn. Each seat's visible score is shown on its plate and updates as cards are opened or swapped.