The goal of Golf Solitaire is to clear the seven stacks of five cards at the top of the screen by building sequences of ascending or descending rank on the discard pile next to the button panel. When no more cards can be moved from the stacks to the pile, the next card from the reserve, the 16 cards spread out on the bottom row, is moved to the discard pile. The game is over when the reserve is exhausted and no cards can be moved to the discard pile. The name derives from the terminology of one game of this solitaire as a "hole" with "par" being four cards remaining. Par for nine "holes" would be 36 cards left in total.

To move a card to the discard pile from a stack or the reserve, simply click on it. Right-clicking anywhere on the screen will move a card from the reserve to the discard pile. A card can be moved to the discard pile from the top of a stack if its rank is one more or one less than the rank on the card on the top of a pile. (An ace has a rank of 1, a jack 11, a queen 12 and a king 13.) An ace on the top of the discard pile can accept only a two, and a king will end the sequence and force the next card in the reserve to be moved.