Golf solitaire on a budget: making 16 stock cards last

Golf gives you 35 column cards to clear and only 16 stock cards to help. Every draw is a withdrawal from a small account, and when it is empty the round ends with whatever is left. To make 16 cards last, keep the account, know what is in it, and spend each draw where it can start something.

The budget in numbers

In Card Lounge Golf, seven columns of five face-up cards hold 35 cards; one card starts the waste and the other 16 form the stock. You may move the top card of any column to the waste if it is exactly one rank higher or lower than the top waste card, regardless of suit. There is no wrap between King and Ace, nothing may be played on a King, and the stock is never recycled.

Call the cards you play between two draws a run. The starting waste card opens the first run and each draw can open one more, so a round has at most 17 runs. The status line keeps the account: Cards left counts the column cards still to clear, Stock the draws you have left.

Divide one by the other whenever a run ends: Cards left 20 with Stock 8 means your remaining runs must average 2.5 cards to clear the table. Once that figure climbs past three, a low score becomes the realistic aim.

Know what is still to come

At the deal you can see 36 of the 52 cards: all 35 column cards and the waste card. The 16 stock cards are exactly the cards you cannot see, so you know which they are, just not their order. Two counts are worth the effort:

• Kings in the stock. Nothing may be played on a King, so a drawn King never starts a run. A 16-card stock holds a little more than one King on average, and each is a draw you cannot use.
• The ranks your tops need. Some tops have only one way in: an Ace needs a 2, a King a Queen, and a Queen a Jack, since nothing goes on a King. If the stock no longer holds that rank, the top can only be reached by a run arriving from another column.

About one deal in 13 starts with a King on the waste, so the first run is empty and Hint suggests drawing at once.

Leave tops a draw can reach

You cannot choose the next stock card, but you can choose what it lands on. A draw starts a run only if one of the seven tops is its neighbour. When you can choose the last card of a run, compare the tops each choice leaves and count how many remaining stock cards could land on them. Tops spread over low, middle and high ranks catch more draws than tops bunched together.

Worked example

Each column is listed top card first:

Waste: 6♠          Cards left 14 · Stock 5
Col 1: 5♦  9♣
Col 2: 7♣  2♥
Col 3: J♠  3♦
Col 4: J♦  8♠
Col 5: Q♥  4♣
Col 6: K♠  6♥
Col 7: 10♣ Q♦

By your count, the five stock cards are 3♣, 4♠, A♣, 8♦ and K♥.

Two cards fit the 6♠: the 5♦ and the 7♣. Either way the run stops after one card: after the 5♦ no top is a 4 or a 6, and after the 7♣ no top is a 6 or an 8. What matters is the next draw.

• Play 5♦. Column 1 shows 9♣. Only the 8♦ could start a run, on the 9♣ or the 7♣. The 3♣, 4♠ and A♣ find nothing to land on, and the K♥ starts nothing. One of five.
• Play 7♣. Column 2 shows 2♥. The 3♣ and the A♣ can land on the 2♥, and the 4♠ on the 5♦. Three of five; only the 8♦ and the K♥ miss.

Play the 7♣. Then check the budget: 13 cards left and 5 draws, but the K♥ cannot start a run, so at most four runs remain. A clear table would need runs of more than three cards each (13 ÷ 4 = 3.25), so play for the lowest score.

What the score means

Your score is the number of cards left in the columns. Lower is better, and a cleared table scores 0 and wins. The round is lost when the stock is empty and no column card can be played; the game then shows "No moves left" with your cards left. If the last stock card is a King, that happens the moment it lands. Until then, every card you clear still lowers the score.

Your Golf statistics count a lost round as played but not won. The score itself is not stored, so note it down if you want to follow it.

Try it

Waste: 9♦          Cards left 9 · Stock 3
Col 1: 8♣  2♥
Col 2: 10♠ 4♣
Col 3: K♦
Col 4: K♠
Col 5: 6♥
Col 6: Q♣
Col 7: 5♠

The stock holds 3♦, A♣ and 7♠. Which card do you play, and how many stock cards could then start a run?

Answer: play the 8♣. Column 1 then shows 2♥, which the 3♦ and the A♣ can reach, and the 7♠ fits the 6♥: all three. After the 10♠ instead, the A♣ would be a dead draw, because no 2 is showing.

For why Kings cost so much, read Golf without Kings; the shared controls are on how to play.