Saltwind Links

What is golf solitaire?

Golf is a classic patience game with a scoring system borrowed from the real sport. Cards are dealt face up in columns, and you clear them one at a time onto a single pile, as long as each card is one rank higher or one rank lower than the card on top. Whatever you can't clear counts against you as strokes, so a low score wins.

Saltwind Links keeps the strict classic rules and dresses them up as a golf tour: the pile you play onto is the green, each deal is a hole with its own par, and nine holes make a round. It's free and plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, nothing to download.

How to play

The layout

A hole from the Club tees is the classic deal: seven columns of five cards, all face up. One card starts the green and the other sixteen wait face down in the stock. Forward tees use seven columns of four (gentler, with a longer stock) and Back tees use eight columns of five (tougher, with only twelve stock cards).

The rules

• One higher or one lower. Tap the bottom card of any column. It goes onto the green if it is exactly one rank above or below the top card. On a 7 you can play a 6 or an 8.
• Suits never matter. The 8 of hearts plays on the 7 of clubs.
• Change direction any time. A run like 7, 8, 7, 6, 5 is fine.
• No wrapping. Only a 2 goes on an Ace, and nothing at all goes on a King. We call a King on the green a bunker: the only way out is the stock.
• The stock. Tap it to turn the next card onto the green, whenever you like. It goes through once, with no redeal.
• The end. A hole ends when the course is clear, or when the stock is out and nothing fits.

Scoring: strokes and par

Every card left on the course is one stroke. If you clear the whole course, every stock card you never needed is minus one stroke, up to five, so clearing with four cards still in the stock scores minus four.

Each hole has a par of 3, 4 or 5. We set it by letting our club pro, a careful computer player that never peeks at the stock, play that exact hole. Easy holes get par 3 and tricky ones par 5.

Scorecards use real golf marks: a circle for under par, a double circle for two or more under, a filled circle when you cleared the course and a square for over par.

Undo and the Mulligan

Undo takes back your course plays since your last draw. It never takes back a draw, because that would let you peek at the stock.

The Mulligan is the exception, and you get one per hole. It takes back your last draw and puts that card back on top of the stock, face up, so you know what is coming. The classic use: you turn a card, realise a run on the course would have ended right next to it, take the Mulligan, play the run, and turn the card again.

The Caddie button points at a good next play, or at the stock when nothing is worth playing. The caddie knows exactly what you know and never looks at the face-down cards.

Modes

The Tour

Six courses of nine holes: Saltwind Links, Bluebell Glen, Heron Marsh, Maple Hollow, Frostwhistle Fen and Lantern Point. Each has its own look, its own mix of tees and a resident rival. Holes open one after another. You earn one star for finishing a hole, two for par or better and three for clearing the course, and 12 stars on a course opens the next one. Replay any hole to raise its stars.

Rival golfers

Pip the Hare, Marlow the Otter, Hollis the Heron, Bramwell the Badger, Juniper the Fox and Old Tilly the Tortoise each play your holes fairly, with no peeking, and each makes the kind of small slips real players make. Beat a course rival's nine-hole total with your best score on each hole and their pennant hangs in your clubhouse.

Daily Round

Three holes, the same for everyone in the world that day (it changes at midnight UTC). Each hole is worth 100 points at par, plus 10 for every stroke under and minus 10 for every stroke over, never below zero, so a round at par is 300. You get one counted try, saved after every move, and the result posts to the daily leaderboard once. After that you can replay the holes as practice.

Saltwind Cup

A new nine-hole Cup every Monday. All six rivals play the same nine holes, and the standings update after every hole you finish. Finish first, second or third for a gold, silver or bronze trophy, and everyone else takes home a ribbon.

Practice Range

Pick your tees and house rules: Round the corner (King and Ace connect), Queen on King, and True random deal for purists who want a real shuffled deck. The Practice Range has unlimited undo and no stars at stake.

Can every hole be cleared?

Yes, on the Tour, in the Daily Round and in the Cup. Strict golf solitaire from a random deck is famously hard (careful players clear only a small share of deals), so we build each of those holes from a known clear and test them all. Clearing still takes planning, because you never see the stock order. The True random deal option in the Practice Range gives you the old-school version.

Tips and strategy

• Plan the longest run first. All the course cards are face up, so trace runs before you tap. A run that bounces up and down (6, 7, 6, 5) often reaches further than a straight one.
• Think about where a run ends. Two runs can clear the same number of cards but leave different cards open. Finish on a rank with plenty of neighbours still in the stock.
• Count the Aces and 2s. An Ace only takes a 2. Don't spend the last 2 on a 3 while an Ace still waits on the course.
• Respect the Kings. A King needs a Queen to land on and stops your run once it lands. Uncover Kings early so a Queen on the green can carry them away.
• Dig the tall columns. Cards buried in a deep column take the longest to reach. Clearing a short column early wastes a spot you could have used.
• When a rank runs out, save its neighbour. If all four 9s are gone, an 8 can only be played on a 7. Play it while you can.
• Keep the Mulligan for a big moment. It is worth most when one card would connect a long run.

Collections and milestones

Your clubhouse keeps rival pennants, weekly Cup trophies, stats like your longest run and best nine, and a list of milestones such as clearing a course, a hole three under par, or playing the Daily Round seven days in a row. Each milestone also opens a new card back, shared with our other card games. Course looks you open on the Tour can be used as the table for the Daily Round, the Cup and the Practice Range.

Controls

On a phone or tablet, tap a column to play its bottom card, or drag the card onto the green. Tap the stock to turn a card. On a computer you can click, or use the keyboard: 1 to 8 play a column, Space turns the stock, Z undoes, M takes the Mulligan, H asks the caddie and Esc opens the menu.

Settings include a four-color deck, large cards, a switch to put the stock on the right, and an option that turns the stock for you when nothing fits.

Questions