A free golf solitaire game with nine holes
Fairway in Games by Zaweba is free golf patience: nine holes where you clear seven columns onto one pile in as few strokes as you can.
Golf patience is free to play in Games by Zaweba, where it's called Fairway. A round is nine holes, and on each hole you clear seven columns of cards onto a single pile in as few strokes as you can. Lowest total after nine holes wins, and par is 36. The app works offline with no adverts and no account.
Golf patience is a lovely quick game. Each hole takes only a few minutes, the rule is simple to grasp, and the golf scoring gives you a reason to play a whole round rather than just one deal.
How a hole of Fairway plays
Seven columns of cards are laid out, with a stock to turn and a waste pile. You play the bottom card of any column onto the waste if it's one higher or one lower than the card on top, in any suit. When you're stuck, turn the next card from the stock.
At the end of a hole, the cards left in the columns are your score for that hole. If you clear the columns completely, the cards still left in the stock count off your score, which is where the really good holes come from. After nine holes, the lowest total wins.
To play, click or drag a bottom card to the waste and click the stock to turn. Space turns a card or moves on to the next hole, and Z undoes a move. You'll find Fairway on the Cards shelf.
Shooting under par
Look for the longest chain, not just the next card. Often two or three cards could go on the waste. Pick the one that lets you keep going, so a single turn of the stock leads to a run of plays rather than one.
Remember both directions. Because you can go one higher or one lower, a sequence can climb and then come back down, such as 5, 6, 7, 6, 5. Seeing those zigzags is the skill that turns a bogey into a birdie.
Clear the columns that hide the most. A tall column with useful cards near the top is worth working on early, because its cards stay locked away until you dig down to them.
Don't hurry to turn the stock. Every card you turn is one fewer that could count off your score if you clear the hole. Check every column before you reach for the stock.
Use undo to study a hole. If you finish a hole with cards left and think there was a better path, stepping back is a good way to learn the patterns.
Keeping score across rounds
Because Fairway is played over nine holes, it's ideal for tracking how you improve. Games by Zaweba keeps your best score for every game and mode, along with how many times you've played and won. Each tile in the library shows those figures, and the result card at the end shows your score next to your best. The scores file sits in your own settings folder and never leaves the PC.
If you enjoy Fairway
Three Hills uses a similar one-higher-or-one-lower idea but adds streak bonuses: race down three hills of cards, chaining plays for bigger and bigger scores, over three rounds. Pyramid Thirteens is another short game, pairing cards to thirteen to take a pyramid apart. And for a longer sit-down, Classic Patience, Open Cells and Spinner Patience are all on the same Cards shelf of Games by Zaweba.
