I Love Games: Golf {Card Game}

I love games. I always have.  I even make up games to help the kids clean. I wasn't the greatest sport as a kid but that didn't change the fact that I loved games.
My best friend growing up wasn't a great sport either but that didn't seem to bother either of us and we just shrugged off the card throwing at the end of the game. (Poor Jamie, who was friends with both of us!)

When I was in Idaho, that friend came down for a night to visit.  We ended up playing games (we taught her to play trash). The morning before she headed home, we were discussing all the old games we used to play.  I commented that I don't know how to play many of those anymore.  

So I thought it was about time to relearn some of the rules to all my old favorite games, especially since my oldest is 8 and VERY interested in games. I thought it would be fun to learn (or relearn) a game every month and share it with you guys.
I'm starting with a game, I learned during my college years because I was trying to teach this game to my son a couple weeks ago, only to realize later, I didn't have the rules right.  {I realized when I saw this similar game on Amazon and was reading the product description: Rat-A-Tat-Cat}

Golf {Card Game}
For 2+ players ages 5(ish) and up
Setup:
You need one deck with joker for 2-3 players or 2 decks with joker for 4 or more players.
Each player is dealt 4 cards which are placed in a 2 x 2 grid. The rest of the cards are placed in middle for a draw pile. Turn the top card over to start the discard pile.

Setup

How to Play:
Each player chooses two cards to peek at but does not show these to anyone else.

Peeking

The object of the game is to have your four cards add up to less than the four cards of your opponents. (You want the lowest score just like in regular golf). Jacks are worth zero, jokers are worth -1 and all other cards are worth their face value with Aces being worth one.
On their turn, each player can choose to pick up the top card of the discard pile or draw a card from the pile.  After they pick the card, they can choose to replace any card in their grid with the picked card or just discard the card.

Choosing the card for the discard pile

If they choose to replace a card, they place the new card face down in the spot they choose and must discard the card they replaced.  Play continues clockwise with players picking cards and replacing cards if desired.
When a player thinks they have the lowest total they can knock instead of drawing a card on their turn.

Once a player has knocked, all players turn over their cards and add up the total.  The one with the least amount, WINS!   You can set a certain amount of rounds to play beforehand or just play until you want to quit. 

Adding up the Score (this would be 7)

My oldest two (8 and 5) really enjoyed these games.  It's great for counting practice and memory skills (you have to remember what the cards you peeked at were!).

Printable Directions

Also for fun I thought I'd include this song about the game LIFE (and life in general).  It talks about how it doesn't matter who wins because it's fun playing with the ones you love which is a lesson, I'm trying to teach my oldest.

If you have any games you think we would enjoy learning please let me know!  I'm excited to relearn my old favorites but I love learning new games too. Happy Playing!

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