When you start the game, you will see the basic layout of Golf solitaire on your screen: The deck in the lower left corner and the seven columns of the tableau above them. You will see that the deck is labeled with the number of cards remaining.
As the game begins, Golf deals thirty-five cards from the deck into the tableau, five cards face-up in each pile.
The object of the game is to clear all the cards from the tableau by playing them on the cards turned up from the deck. After you turn up each card, you may play on it the top card from any pile which is next higher or lower in sequence to the card turned up, regardless of suit. Ace is low, King is high.
For example, if you turn up a three, you may play either a four or a two on it. You may continue to play as many cards as you can, freely ascending and descending in sequence, before turning up the next card from the deck.
The normal rules do not allow a card to be played on a King; that is, while two-ace-two is legal, Queen-King-Queen is not. However, this game offers the option to deviate from this rule if desired. When the Strict Rules option is disabled in Settings, either a Queen or an Ace may be played on a King.
If you succeed in playing all the cards from the tableau, you have won the game.
If you select Casino Scoring in Settings, as you deal each game, you are ‘charged’ 52 points, which appears as a negative score. You earn it back by making ‘par’, which means removing all but 4 cards from the Tableau. If you beat ‘par’ (i.e., fewer than 4 cards remain in the tableau), you earn an additional 52 points.
Regular scoring is more like a video game, including a penalty for slow play, as follows:
For each card played from the tableau piles onto the turned up cards in the deck, you will receive 10 points.
When you are able to play a sequence of cards from the tableau to the deck, each card after the first will result in a sequence bonus of 5 points for the second card, 10 points for the third, and so on, increasing by 5 points for each additional card in the sequence.
For each 15 seconds of play, you lose 2 points.
If you win the game, by playing all cards from the tableau to the deck, you will receive a winning bonus comprised of two parts: a time bonus of 10 * (final score - number of seconds played), and a remainder bonus of 500 points for each card left in the deck which was not turned up.
You can view the top ten scores you have achieved for the game by tapping History on the Menu toolbar. Details include the date and time the game ended, and the elapsed playing time. Scores for games which you did not win are shown in red.
For more information about iKlondike’s history, rules and scoring, visit the Klondike home page.
Email support: iklondike@casteel.org.