Playable solitaire
Hole in One Solitaire
Hole in One Solitaire (also known as Golf Solitaire) lines up seven columns of five cards, all face-up, and a single golf foundation that starts with one dealt card. Play exposed column cards onto that foundation when they are exactly one rank higher or lower. Suits do not matter. Ace and King do not wrap — you cannot play a King onto an Ace or an Ace onto a King.
The remaining cards form a stock with no redeals. When no column card fits, deal the next stock card onto the foundation as a new “lie” and continue. Clear all tableau cards to win; cards left in an empty stock after a stuck board mean a loss for that deal.
Buried cards in a column stay unplayable until the cards below them (toward the exposed end) are removed — SolitaireVP dims buried cards so the exposed tops are obvious.
Prefer the Golf name? Same rules live on Golf Solitaire.
From New game you can also choose a shuffle style — Random, Winnable, Easy, Medium, or Hard — when you want the next deal to feel more open-ended or more guided.
How to play Hole in One Solitaire
- Only the outermost (exposed) card of each column may be played.
- Play it to the golf foundation if its rank is ±1 from the foundation top.
- If nothing plays, draw one from the stock onto the foundation.
- Continue until the tableau is clear (win) or the stock is gone and no moves remain (loss).
- Undo is available; there is no Auto finish in Hole in One / Golf.
Setup
- Tableau: 7 columns × 5 cards (35), all face-up; only column ends are live.
- Golf foundation: 1 starter card.
- Stock: 16 cards; no redeals, no separate waste — draws go straight to the foundation.
Rules
- Adjacent ranks only (difference of 1).
- No Ace ↔ King wrap.
- Suits ignored.
- One pass through the stock; maxRedeals = 0.
- Win by clearing all 35 tableau cards.
Strategy
Hole in One is a scheduling puzzle: every stock card permanently changes the foundation rank and can strand columns.
- Prefer long chains from the tableau before drawing.
- Don’t draw greedily if an exposed card still continues the run.
- Count how many column cards a given foundation rank can still eat.
- Watch for Ace/King dead-ends — they only connect one way (2 or Queen).
- Clear columns that hide useful connectors underneath.
- Use Undo to compare “draw now” vs “play this seven first.”
Short prose: imagine the foundation as a golf ball on a fairway of ranks. Each tableau play is a chip; each stock card is a mulligan that resets the lie. Take chips whenever a path still exists.
FAQ
Is Hole in One the same as Golf?
Yes on SolitaireVP. Same rules, same layout — this page targets the Hole in One name; Golf Solitaire is the twin page.
Can Ace and King connect?
No. SolitaireVP does not wrap. Ace only connects with 2; King only with Queen.
Are suits used?
No — rank adjacency only.
Can I recycle the stock?
No. One pass only.
How do I win?
Remove every card from the seven columns onto the foundation chain (aided by stock cards when needed).
Is Auto finish available?
No. Hole in One / Golf is a manual clearing game.
Can every deal be won?
Not with a pure Random shuffle. Like a physical deck, some layouts simply have no winning line no matter how carefully you play — and that uncertainty is part of the classic challenge. If you would rather spend your time on strategy than on an unlucky seed, open New game and choose Winnable (or Easy, Medium, or Hard). Those options deal from banks of layouts our engine already rated as more promising, so a loss is more often about the moves you made than about an impossible start.
What do the shuffle options mean?
New game offers five deal styles:
- Random — an unbiased fresh seed. Some hands open beautifully; others are dead ends.
- Winnable — a favorable deal drawn from our curated pool, biased toward layouts with clearer progress paths.
- Easy, Medium, and Hard — the same idea, tilted toward gentler, middling, or tougher opening positions.
Your choice sticks for later New games in that browser until you change it.
Trivia
“Hole in One” and “Golf” are common marketing names for the same one-foundation elimination layout. Variants disagree on Ace–King wrapping (“Putt-Putt” style wraps; classic Golf often does not). SolitaireVP follows the no-wrap convention.