Nine Card Golf

Players draw and discard to minimize the total value of their tableau of 9 cards.

Overview

The game is played over 4 rounds, where in each round each player tries to get as few points as possible.

• Players: 2+
• Prerequisites:
  • 1 deck of cards (52 cards + 2 jokers) per 2-3 players
  • Something to keep the running score for each player
• Play time: 15-20 minutes

Setup

Shuffle all cards (including jokers) and deal out 9 cards face down to each player. Players arrange their cards in a 3x3 grid, keeping the cards face down.

Place the remaining cards as a draw pile in the center of the table, and flip over 1 card to start the discard pile.

Choose a player to start the first round. On subsequent rounds, the player who scored the most points in the prior round is the starting player.

Each player flips over 3 cars of their choosing in their grid, without looking at the other cards.

Actions

A player chooses one of the following actions in their turn:

1. Draw and look at the top card of the draw pile. The player then chooses either to:
   1. Replacing one of their grid cards with the drawn card, discarding the replaced card.
   2. Discarding the drawn card, after which the player may choose to flip one of the face-down cards in their grid.
2. Replace one of their grid cards with the top card of the discard pile, discarding the replaced card.

Either a face-down or face-up card can be replaced, but the new card is always played face-up. Discarded cards are always placed face-up on top of the discard pile.

When a player reveals all cards in their grid, all other players get 1 additional turn, after which the round is scored.

Scoring

Each player first flips over their face-down cards, if still remaining. Then each player scores using the following rules:

• Aces are worth 1 point.

• Numbered cards (2-10) are worth their face-value.

• Jacks and Queens are worth 10 points.

• Kings are worth 0 points.

• Jokers are worth -2 points.

• If a card is orthogonal adjacent with a card of the same value, it scores 0 points instead.

• A set of 4 same-valued cards in a 2x2 block score -10 points.

• If the player who ended the round (first to reveal all cards in their grid) did not get the lowest score this round, they get a +10 point penalty.

Players keep a running count of their scores over multiple rounds. The player with the lowest total score wins.

Closing words

As with most classic card games, there are many variants of the card game Golf, see Wikipedia. Nine-card golf, using rules as explained on this page, is my preferred way to play.

In my opinion this game works bests as a 2-player game, because of:

• The speed of play.
• High importance to not only care for your own grid, but also to prevent throwing away cards the opponent can use.
• The use of a single-card deck causes fewer opportunities making sets of cards, leading to more strategic decisions and less chance.

The game Skyjo is a modern implementation of the Golf family of card games, suitable for 2-5 players.