Golf card game score sheet
Nine holes across, eight players down, and the lowest number at the bottom taking the round. The counter knows what a king is worth, what a two is worth, and what happens to a column of matching cards — which is where almost all of this game's scoring interest lives.
Keep score in the browser
The grid below is the sheet. Type into it and the totals, bonuses and thresholds are applied as you go; press Print at any point and the paper version comes out with whatever is in the boxes.
Names and scores stay in this browser and nothing is uploaded. Where a game has competing conventions the sheet says which one it applies. Check this before you rely on it. This score sheet and scorekeeper is provided free and without warranty, and its results are not professional advice.
Golf score sheet
Date ____________
| Score | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 | Player 7 | Player 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hole 1 | ||||||||
| Hole 2 | ||||||||
| Hole 3 | ||||||||
| Hole 4 | ||||||||
| Hole 5 | ||||||||
| Hole 6 | ||||||||
| Hole 7 | ||||||||
| Hole 8 | ||||||||
| Hole 9 | ||||||||
| Total |
Nine holes, kings worth nothing, twos worth minus two, and a matched column cancelling to zero.
Count a layout
Type the cards in the order they lie, row by row. Kings are nothing and twos go backwards, and if your table cancels matching columns the counter reads the list as a grid rather than as a line.
A worked example
A six-card layout scored twice: once flat, once with a matched column cancelling.
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| King 0, two −2, nine, jack 10, five, ace 1 | 23 |
| Sevens sharing a column, cancelled to nothing | 13 |
| Total against you | 36 |
Kings are nothing and twos go backwards
A king counts zero, which makes it the best card in the deck and the one everybody wants to swap in. A two counts minus two, so it is better than nothing. Aces are one, courts other than the king are ten, and the numbered cards are worth their faces. That short table is the entire card value system and it is worth reading twice, because two of the four entries run against intuition.
Where jokers are used they are usually minus two as well, sometimes minus five. Since the value is agreed rather than printed on the card, it is one to settle before dealing, and the counter takes whichever reading you tell it.
A matched column cancels to nothing
In the layouts played with six or eight cards, two matching cards in the same column wipe each other out and the column scores zero. That single rule is why a pair of nines is a triumph rather than eighteen points of damage, and it converts the game from an exercise in addition into one about where you place what you draw.
The counter applies it when you ask it to, reading the cards you type as a grid of columns rather than a flat list. Tables that play without cancelling are common enough that the behaviour is a switch rather than an assumption — and knowing which way your table plays changes the whole strategy of a hole.
Nine holes, or six, or eighteen
Nine rows are printed because nine is the usual length, borrowed from the sport the game is named after. Six makes a quick game and eighteen makes a long one, and both are entirely normal. Rows left blank cost nothing, and a second printed page continues a long session with only the running totals carried across.
The scoring direction stays the same throughout: the smallest total wins, exactly as it would on a course. That is easy to hold on to here precisely because of the name, which is more than can be said for other games on this site where a low total wins for no memorable reason.
Common questions
How many cards does each player get?
Four, six, eight or nine depending on the variant, laid out in a grid. Six in two rows of three is the most common. The sheet does not care which you play — it records one number per hole — but the counter needs to know how many columns to compare when matched pairs cancel.
Do matching cards have to be side by side?
They have to share a column, not a row. That is the distinction that decides whether a pair cancels, and it is worth stating out loud at the start because a table that has been playing rows for years will insist otherwise.
Is a king really worth nothing?
Yes, in nearly every published version, and it is the single most valuable card because of it. A small minority play kings at minus one or minus two. Whatever you agree, the counter follows the standard table by default and you can override any hole.
Can we play more than nine holes?
Yes. Print a second page and carry the totals over — the columns add up whatever they are given. Eighteen holes takes about twice as long, which with four players is a long evening rather than a filler.
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