UNO Golf (UNO Zero) Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Note: This game goes by different names in different countries. In the United States and some other countries it is called UNO Golf. In other countries the game is called UNO Zero. The rules seem to be the same, as the only difference appears to be the name.

Setup

Choose a player to be the Dealer. The Dealer shuffles all of the cards.
After shuffling the cards, the Dealer deals six cards facedown to each player.
Place the remaining cards in the center of the table to create the Draw Pile. Turn over the top card from the Draw Pile and place it next to the pile. This card starts the Discard Pile. If you flip over an Action Card (any card with a special symbol on it), you will ignore it and flip over another card.
Each player arranges the six cards they were dealt into a 2×3 grid. All of the cards must remain facedown.
After each player creates their grid, they choose one card to flip faceup.
The player to the left of the Dealer starts the game. Play proceeds clockwise/left to start the game.

How to Play UNO Golf

The goal of UNO Golf is to try and reduce your score from the cards in front of you. You can do this by replacing your cards with lower valued cards, or clearing out columns by matching numbers or colors.

On each of your turns, you will draw one card. You can choose to take one of two cards. You can either take the top card from the Draw or Discard Pile.

Taking a Card from the Draw Pile

When you choose to take the top card from the Draw Pile, you have the option to keep the card or discard it.

Drawing a card — This player drew the green one from the Draw Pile. It is one of the best cards in the game so they will want to place it somewhere in their grid. They can either replace the yellow five (a bad card) or one of the facedown cards.

If you want to keep the card, you will choose one card from your grid to replace with the card you drew. You can either replace a faceup or facedown card. After you have chosen the card you want to replace, you will take the card from your grid and place it faceup on top of the Discard Pile. You will then place faceup the card you drew in the space that is now empty in your grid.

Replacing a card in your grid — This player decided to replace the yellow five (a high card) with the green one. The yellow five was placed on the top of the Discard Pile.

If you don’t want to keep the card that you drew, you can choose to discard it to the Discard Pile. You will then choose one of the facedown cards in your grid, and flip it faceup.

Flipping over facedown card — On their second turn this player drew a high number card from the Draw Pile. They decided to discard it instead of adding it to their grid. They then flipped over one of their facedown cards which ended up being a yellow six card.

Taking a card from the Discard Pile

If you choose to take a card from the Discard Pile, you must place it into your grid. You cannot choose to discard it again this turn.

Choose one card in your grid that you want to replace. You can either pick a faceup or facedown card. Remove your chosen card from your grid, and place it faceup on the Discard Pile. Then place faceup the card you took from the Discard Pile in the now empty space in your grid.

Taking a card from the Discard Pile — The green one in the top right corner was on top of the Discard Pile. This player chose to take it as it is a low card. A good spot to place this card is the top right corner as it then matches the number and color of the card below it. This would allow the player to discard the entire column (see below).

UNO Golf Card Meanings

Most of the cards in UNO Golf are normal number cards. There are a number of special Action Cards though. If an Action Card is the top card on the Discard Pile at the end of your turn, you must take the corresponding action. You do not take the special action from an Action Card when it is in your grid. When they are in your grid, the cards are worth the points printed in the corners.

Reverse

Reverse the turn order. If play was moving clockwise/left, it will now move counterclockwise/right. If play was moving counterclockwise, it will now move clockwise.

Skip

The next player in turn order loses their turn.

Draw 2

The next player in turn order has to draw two cards from the Draw Pile. Without looking at them, they will add the cards as a new column in their grid. Place the new cards facedown. The player also loses their turn.

Double Draw 2

When you discard/play a Double Draw 2 card, you can choose one of two options.

First you can choose two other players. Each chosen player has to draw two cards from the Draw Pile (without looking at them), and places them facedown in their grid as a new column.

Making two players draw cards from a Double Draw 2 card — The player that played the Double Draw 2 card chose to force two players to draw two cards. Each player placed their new cards on the left side of their grid.

Otherwise you can choose one other player. They have to draw four cards from the Draw Pile (without looking at them), and place them facedown in their grid as two new columns.

Making a player draw four cards with a Double Draw 2 — The player that played the Double Draw 2 card has chosen one player. That player had to draw four cards, and added two new columns to their grid.

No matter what option is chosen, no player loses their turn. After the player(s) place the cards, play returns to normal.

Clearing Columns

During the game you should periodically check each of your vertical columns. Should a vertical column have two cards that are the same number or color, you can choose to discard both of the cards from the column. This reduces the number of cards in your grid, which also reduces the number of points you will score at the end of the round.

Clear a column in UNO Golf — Pictured are two different players’ grids. The player on the left can clear their left column since both cards are blue. The player on the right can remove their left column because both cards are ones. Both players will have four cards left in their grids after clearing their column.

When you clear a column, you will place the cards on top of the Discard Pile. You can choose which of the discarded cards you want to place on top of the Discard Pile.

Calling UNO

When you only have one facedown card left in your grid, you need to call out “UNO” to let the other players know that you are close to ending the round.

Should you fail to say UNO and someone catches you before the next player starts their turn, you have to draw two cards from the Draw Pile and place them facedown in your grid to create a new column.

End of Round

The round ends when all of the cards are faceup in one of the player’s grids. The remaining players flip over any cards in their grids that are still facedown.

All of the players should look at each of their columns to see if any have two cards that are either the same color or number. Any columns that have matching numbers or colors can be discarded at this time.

Each player then adds up the values of all of the cards in their grid. Action Cards are worth the points printed in the corners. Each player writes down their score on a piece of paper.

Scoring in UNO Golf — At the end of the round this player had four cards left in their grid. They score 13 points this round.

Gather up all of the cards and shuffle them together. Setup for the next round follows the same process as the first round.

The player that scored the least points, wins the hand/round. They will start the next round by playing the first card.

Winning UNO Golf

The game ends after nine rounds have been played. The players total up the points they scored in the nine rounds. The player that scored the least total points, wins the game.

Components

21 Blue Number Cards (three each of 0-6)
21 Green Number Cards (three each of 0-6)
21 Red Number Cards (three each of 0-6)
21 Yellow Number Cards (three each of 0-6)
8 Draw 2 Cards (two of each color)
4 Double Draw 2 Cards (two of each color)
8 Reverse Cards (two of each color)
8 Skip Cards (two of each color)
Scoresheets (only in UNO Zero versions of the game)

Year: 2025 | Publisher: Mattel

Genres: Card, Family

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-8 | Length of Game: 20-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.

Monday 30th of June 2025

Hey, how would you interpret the rules in the following case: - If you draw an Action card from the Draw Pile and you directly discard it. Would you then enable the ction or would you say it has to be first in your grad? Br Simone

Tuesday 1st of July 2025

Based on how the instructions are written, I would think you can draw an Action card from the Draw Pile and immediately discard it for its effect. The only thing the instructions say for the Action cards is that you have to take the associated action if the card is the top card on the Discard Pile at the end of your turn. When you draw a card and don't want to add it to your grid, you can discard it immediately. Therefore in your example if you choose to discard it after drawing it, it will be the top card on the Discard Pile and thus you will have to take the associated action.

While playing UNO Golf we actually encountered situations where it was really easy to trigger the action cards. Especially in lower player counts you can get in a situation where it is hard for a round to end. Say for example someone plays/discards a Draw Two or Double Draw Two card. Since the card is on top of the Discard Pile, one or two players will end up having to draw two or four cards. The next player in turn order could then choose to pick up the card and add it to their grid in order to save it to use on the other players on a future turn. If they have a matching color or number in one of their columns, they could even create a matched column and discard the Draw Two/Double Draw Two card immediately to force another player(s) to draw cards. At worst they could just hold the card for a round and then discard it on their next turn to force a player(s) to draw cards. This can be especially bad with smaller player counts (three players in particular).

When we were playing the game we knew some sort of house rule needed to be created to fix this. We didn't know exactly what it should be. One solution could be that you can't take Action Cards from the Discard Pile. Otherwise there needs to be some limit on when you can pick up the cards just so you can get rid of them on a future turn in order to make other players draw cards. I am not sure what the best solution would be.