Fun Card Game: Golf for 2+ Players
When our friends visited us from Oakland recently, they taught us a new fun card game we had never played: Golf. (As a side note, I can’t remember if I mentioned their visit or not on the blog! I definitely mentioned it in my weekly newsletter if you haven’t yet subscribed and are interested in doing so. The form is at the bottom of each post or you can go here.)
Here is how my friends taught me to play it. This version is a variation of the rules I found online.
Object of This Fun Card Game
To score the fewest number of points (like in Golf!)
Directions
- Shuffle two decks of cards together, keeping the jokers in.
- Deal each player 9 cards.
- Each player lays out their cards face down in 3 x 3 grid, careful not to look at their cards.
- Start a discard pile by flipping over one card.
- On your turn, you have multiple options: A) Draw the top card from the draw pile and look at it. You may then either replace the drawn card with one of the 9-cards in front of you and place it face up OR discard the drawn card and flip one of your face down cards face up. The replaced card can be a face up or face down card. B) Draw the top card from the discard pile and replace it with one of the 9-cards in front of you, putting it face up. The replaced card can be a face up or face down card.
- As soon as one player turns over all 9 cards, every other player gets one last turn and then the game is over.
How to Score This Fun Card Game
- Numbered cards (ace-10) are worth their point value. Aces are worth 1 point.
- Jacks and Kings are worth 10 points.
- Queens are worth 0 points. This is the non-patriarchal version of the game.
- Jokers are worth -2 points.
- Any two of the same number cards that are adjacent in the same “column” cancel each other out are are worth 0 points. I.E., if you have a 5 in the upper left corner, and a 5 immediately below it, combined those cards are worth 0 points. If you have three of the same in a column, the third card is scored at its value as normal. Jokers will cancel each out and are worth 0 points instead of -.4
- A 2×2 block of all the same card (i.e. four 7’s in a 2×2 block) is collectively worth -10 points. Not easy to do but possible!