Golf Card Game Rules (6-Card Golf)

Rules in 30 seconds

• Deal six cards each in a 2×3 grid; flip exactly two face-up to start.
• On your turn, draw from the deck or the top discard.
• Swap the drawn card with any grid card (face-up or face-down), or discard a card drawn from the deck.
• If you take the discard, you must swap. You cannot discard it again.
• A hole ends when one player's last card is face-up; others usually get one more turn each.
• Lowest total score after 9 or 18 holes wins (or play to 100 if your group agrees).

What you need

• Players: 2–4 on one standard 52-card deck (Pagat). Add a second deck when more than four play, and a third when more than eight play.
• Score sheet: Track each hole. Use our printable score sheet.
• Space: Room for each player's grid plus draw and discard piles.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal six cards face-down to each player, one at a time.
2. Each player arranges cards in two rows of three (three columns).
3. Place the rest of the deck face-down as the draw pile.
4. Turn the top draw card face-up to start the discard pile.
5. Each player flips any two cards face-up. Those are the only cards you may see before normal play.
6. Play starts with the player left of the dealer and moves clockwise.

Your turn

Each turn has one draw and one action. You must finish the turn with the card you drew.

1. Draw the top card of the deck or the discard pile.
2. Swap the drawn card with any one grid card. The new card goes face-up in that spot. The old card goes on the discard pile face-up.
3. Or discard the drawn card, but only if you drew from the deck. Your turn ends with no swap. You do not flip a hidden card on this site. Some tables use that as a house rule.

If you draw from the discard pile, Pagat requires a swap. Our Classic game matches that rule.

How a hole ends

After the final turns, flip any remaining face-down cards and score the hole.

Scoring

Add up each column. If both cards in a column share the same rank, that column scores 0.

Vertical pair: Two 7s in the same column score 0, not 14. Two 2s in a column also score 0 on Pagat, not −4.

Worked example

Winning the game

Pagat's usual match is 9 holes. 18 holes is a longer option. Some groups play until someone reaches 100 total; lowest score wins.

Playing with 2 players

The rules do not change with two players. One deck is enough. The discard pile shows what your opponent just took, so reads matter more. You can play nine holes or eighteen for a longer match.

Common house rules

• Horizontal pairs (same row) also score 0.
• After discarding a stock card, flip one face-down card face-up (Pagat lists this as a variation).
• Use your turn only to flip a face-down card, with no draw.
• Four equal cards in two columns: −10 (Pagat six-card variation).
• Four equal cards in a 2×2 square: −20.
• Jokers at −2 with twos at +2. See Golf with jokers.

More layouts: Golf variations guide.

Edge cases

Frequently asked questions