That’s right, sometimes a previously face-down card (unknown to you) or a face-up card you want to replace, and about to be placed in the discard pile, might be precisely the card needed by your neighbor.įor example, that 9 may be mucking up your score, but your buddy views that 9 as the lynchpin in achieving a glorious 3-of-a-kind, rendering his entire row of 9’s to be worth nothing at all! Your neighbor will be just like that, too. Think about it, but not too long because the jerks behind you are muttering about how you should move your slow, ragtag team of shankers to a public course.

This realization has everything to do with the simple fact that what you’re discarding could be drawn off the discard pile by your neighboring arch nemesis. While it may at first seem like Paddy O’Shea’s Golf Card Game is strictly about working with your own “grid” and achieving the lowest score possible, after just a few turns you realize there is far more strategy involved in selecting which cards to replace. (Behold the rather amazing final hand I had on the 4th hole in the sidebar.) The Mulligan is not wild, and has a value of 0. Having a wild card in the middle of your grid is the holy grail, giving you maximum flexibility, up, across, and diagonally in both directions! Plus, you get to add their negative value to your score. Thus, having one or more in a row or in a diagonal allows you to complete a three-of-a-kind. The beauty of the wild cards is that they can assume another card type. The values of these cards are as follows:

The other cards in the deck add an interesting twist - they are the wild cards, as well as the Mulligans (4). So, three Queens in a row are worth nothing, which is a good thing, because you’re looking to score low, but two Queens and a 10, well, now you’re looking at 30 points. All other cards assume their numerical value. Where you can manage three-of-a-kind - in a row, column or diagonally - you render the value of those cards as zero. Now it’s time to calculate the scores, and call your low-scoring buddy a bad name. The first person to do that (have all nine of their cards face-up) ends the round, with everyone else getting one final turn. In this way, you’ll gradually whittle away your grid of mostly face-down cards, eventually exposing the whole lot of them by exchanging them with the cards you’ve drawn. You can replace an existing face-up card, or remove a face-down card, placing the drawn card face-up in its place. With card in hand, you’ll decide where to place it in your grid, face-up. Doing so is not unlike adjusting your grip to attempt that draw or fade technique you read about in Golf Digest. On your turn you’ll either grab the face-up card, or take your chances on drawing an unknown. The remaining cards of the 114-card deck comprise the draw pile, with one card flipped face-up. In Paddy O’Shea’s version of Golf, games begin with each player laying nine cards face-down in a 3×3 grid, turning two of them face-up. One or more standard decks of cards is often used, but how Paddy O’Shea’s sets itself apart is the inclusion of extra cards - Mulligans and 19th Holes - as well as some interesting game play and scoring differences. While the layout and number of cards dealt varies between versions, the basic premise of all these games is that a hand represents a “hole,” and the goal is to achieve as low a score as possible.Ī typical game is played over nine hands (or “holes”), or whatever is agreed upon. If you’ve ever played Polish Polka, Polish Poker, Turtle, Hara Kiri, or Crazy Nines, you’ll already have a leg up on Paddy O’Shea’s Golf Card Game. There are many versions of the card game, Golf. Home › Reviews › Paddy O’Shea’s Golf Card Game Review

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