User:Bradhays89

 Tournament Golf, a descendant of the Golf card games, is a card game where players try to earn the lowest number of points (as in golf, the sport) over the course of nine, or eighteen, deals (or "holes" to further use golfing terminology). It is a game for two or more players using a single deck of 54 cards - with the addition of both Joker cards as well.

Deal
Two or more players use a standard 52-card deck plus 2 Jokers. Each player is dealt either 3, 4 or 5 cards face down from the deck, the remainder is placed face down and the top card is turned up to start the discard pile beside it. The number cards dealt to each player is dependent upon the "par" to be played by the dealer. A par-3 has each player dealt three cards, a par-4 has four cards to each, and par-5 has each player receiving five cards. In a nine-hole game, there would be three holes of each par played. The holes may be played in any order as long as there are an even number of each par type played. The same goes for eighteen-hole Golf in which six holes are played for each par type in any order chosen by the dealers.

Play
The object is for players to reduce the value of the cards in front of them by either swapping them for lesser value cards or by pairing them up with cards of equal rank.

Beginning at dealer's left, players take turns drawing single cards from either the stock or discard piles. The drawn card may either be swapped for one of that player's 6 cards, or discarded. If the card is swapped for one of the face down cards, the card swapped in remains face up. The round ends when all of a player's cards are face-up. Remaining players then have one turn to draw a card to improve their hands and then scores are totaled and recorded on a running score sheet.

During play it is not legal for a player to pick up a card from the discard pile and return it to the discard pile without playing it, to allow another player to retrieve the card. A card picked up from the discard pile must be swapped with one of the current players cards.

Game is nine or eighteen "holes" (deals), and the player with the lowest total score is designated winner.

Pairs
Pairs are formed by cards of equal rank in the same column and override the normal point values of those cards. Pairs score as follows:
 * A pair of Jokers scores -4
 * Any other pair scores zero

Variations
The variants in multiplayer golf are endless. Some common ones include:

Single-pack golf
For two to four players. Rules are the same as in double-pack golf. Sometimes jokers are not used.

Alternative scoring
There are many variants for point values of cards, including:
 * Queens score 12, 13 or 20 points each.
 * Queen of spades scores 40 points, other Queens 10 each, and Eights are zero points.
 * One-eyed jacks are wild and automatically form a pair with an adjacent card (or complete a triplet in 9-card golf).
 * Jacks score zero, Queens 12, Kings 13.
 * Jacks are worth 20 points each and when a Jack is discarded, the following player loses a turn.
 * Twos are minus 2 instead of plus 2 (usually played in games without Jokers)
 * Jokers are minus 1, minus 2, minus 3 or minus 5 points each.
 * Jokers are +15 individually, or minus 5 as a pair
 * Four of a kind wins all nine game automatically (usually played in 4-card golf).