The rulebook

How to play Golf

Six cards, a grid, and one goal: end up with the lowest score. Same idea as the sport it's named for — low number wins.

Step 1

Deal & peek

Deal six cards face-down to each player, arranged in two rows of three. Each player then flips any two of their cards face-up — those stay showing, and everything else stays a mystery until it's flipped. Turn the top card of the remaining deck face-up beside it to start the discard pile.

77your pick
22your pick
Six cards, dealt face-down in two rows of three. Flip any two cards of your choice face-up to start.

Step 2

Take your turn

On your turn, draw the top card from the deck or take the top card of the discard pile. Draw from the deck and you choose — play it, or discard it and your turn simply ends. Take from the discard pile and you're committed: that card must be played into your grid.

Draw pile
or
99Discard pile
Option A
99

Swap it into your grid. The card you replace goes face-up onto the discard pile.

Option B
99

Discard it — your turn ends and nothing on your grid changes. Deck draws only— a card taken from the discard pile must be played.

Step 3

Match your columns

Each of your three columns is scored on its own. If the top and bottom card of a column show the same rank, that column is worth zero — no matter what the cards were. Otherwise, the column counts both cards at face value.

7777= 0
Matched column
same rank, top & bottom
5599= 14
Unmatched column
counts at face value

Step 4

End the hole

The instant a player's last card goes face-up, the hole ends right then — nobody else gets another turn. Flip every remaining card and total up every column.

Step 5

Card values

The 2 is the card to watch — it's the only one that scores below zero on its own. Playing with house rules? Set your table’s variant in Settings and Caddie & Tally will use it automatically.

 CardPoints
AAAce1
22Two−2
3–103–10Three through tenFace value
JJJack10
QQQueen10
KKKing10

New to the table?

Ask the caddie

A turn-by-turn walkthrough for your own hand — what to draw, what to do with it, and your score at the end.

Cards already down?

Tally a hand

Enter your six cards and get your score worked out for you, matched columns and all.

How this maps to the ledger

One full hand of Golf — deal through everyone flipping all six cards — is one hole. A round in this app is 9 or 18 holes played back to back, exactly like a real golf scorecard: your Front and Back subtotals, your running Total, and your Delta from whoever's currently in the lead. Enter each hole's total as soon as it's scored, and the book keeps the rest.

Deal a round