It's the triangle peg game you've seen on restaurant tables, like Cracker Barrel's. Fifteen holes, fourteen golf tees, and you win by leaving one. Every starting hole can get there. Pick the hole that starts empty and step through the jumps on the board below, or find your hole in the lists further down.
Everything below uses the same numbers as the board above: row by row from the top, so the top hole is 1, the bottom row runs 11 to 15, and 5 is the one in the middle of the third row. On most boards the pegs are golf tees, so this page calls them tees.
Turn the board around and there are only four kinds of starting hole. Every hole in a group plays the same way, just turned or flipped.
Each list below starts from the first hole in its group, and it matches the board above when you tap that hole. If your empty hole is a different one, the cheat sheet has a list for every hole, so you don't have to turn anything in your head.
This is how most boards get set up, with the top hole open. From hole 1:
That leaves the last tee in hole 13. Starting from hole 1, the last tee can only end in one of four holes: 1, 7, 10 or 13.
This is the one to show off. Do the first six jumps above, then switch to these seven:
One tee, back in the corner you opened.
From hole 2:
That leaves the last tee in hole 6. These holes can also finish back where they started, but it's the rarest finish on the board: 720 ways out of 14,880.
The easiest start there is. From hole 4, and this one ends right where it started:
One tee left, in hole 4.
The hardest start. From hole 5:
That leaves the last tee in hole 13, and from hole 5 it always will. Every solution from an inner hole ends in the same place: 13 from hole 5, 6 from hole 8, and 4 from hole 9. None of them can finish where they started.
Find the hole that starts empty. Each jump is written as the tee that moves and the hole it lands in, so 4→1 means the tee in hole 4 jumps into hole 1. The tee in between is the one you pull.
| Hole | Thirteen jumps | Last tee |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4→1 · 6→4 · 1→6 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 13→6 · 2→9 · 3→10 · 15→6 · 6→13 · 14→12 · 11→13 | 13 |
| 2 | 7→2 · 1→4 · 9→7 · 3→8 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 2→9 · 14→12 · 11→13 · 13→6 · 3→10 · 15→6 | 6 |
| 3 | 10→3 · 1→6 · 8→10 · 2→9 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 14→5 · 3→8 · 12→14 · 15→13 · 13→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 | 4 |
| 4 | 1→4 · 6→1 · 4→6 · 10→3 · 1→6 · 13→4 · 7→2 · 15→13 · 12→14 · 14→5 · 6→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 | 4 |
| 5 | 12→5 · 10→8 · 2→9 · 3→10 · 7→2 · 1→4 · 14→12 · 4→13 · 12→14 · 15→6 · 6→13 · 14→12 · 11→13 | 13 |
| 6 | 1→6 · 4→1 · 6→4 · 7→2 · 1→4 · 12→5 · 4→6 · 10→3 · 14→12 · 11→13 · 13→6 · 3→10 · 15→6 | 6 |
| 7 | 2→7 · 6→4 · 1→6 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 13→6 · 2→9 · 3→10 · 15→6 · 6→13 · 14→12 · 11→13 | 13 |
| 8 | 3→8 · 10→3 · 13→6 · 3→10 · 7→9 · 2→7 · 11→4 · 15→13 · 12→14 · 14→5 · 4→6 · 10→3 · 1→6 | 6 |
| 9 | 2→9 · 7→2 · 12→5 · 3→8 · 10→3 · 1→6 · 14→12 · 6→13 · 12→14 · 15→13 · 13→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 | 4 |
| 10 | 3→10 · 4→6 · 1→4 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 13→6 · 2→9 · 3→10 · 15→6 · 6→13 · 14→12 · 11→13 | 13 |
| 11 | 4→11 · 1→4 · 9→7 · 3→8 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 2→9 · 14→12 · 11→13 · 13→6 · 3→10 · 15→6 | 6 |
| 12 | 14→12 · 4→13 · 1→4 · 3→8 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 13→6 · 3→10 · 15→6 · 6→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 | 4 |
| 13 | 4→13 · 1→4 · 3→8 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 12→5 · 13→6 · 2→9 · 3→10 · 15→6 · 6→13 · 14→12 · 11→13 | 13 |
| 14 | 12→14 · 4→13 · 1→4 · 3→8 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 13→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 · 14→5 · 4→6 · 3→10 · 15→6 | 6 |
| 15 | 6→15 · 1→6 · 8→10 · 2→9 · 7→2 · 10→3 · 14→5 · 3→8 · 12→14 · 15→13 · 13→4 · 2→7 · 11→4 | 4 |
One tee left is a win. Holes are numbered row by row from the top. golfteegames.com/triangle-peg-game-solution
A tee in a corner can never be jumped. There's no hole on the far side of it. The only way it leaves is to jump out along one of its two edges, and for that it needs a tee beside it and an empty hole past that.
Edge tees aren't much better off. A tee on an edge can only be jumped by a tee moving along that same edge. The inner holes, 5, 8 and 9, can be jumped from six directions. So tees in the middle are easy to clear, and tees on the rim are not.
We worked out every way a game can go if you just take whatever jump you see. When those games end with two or more tees left, at least one of them is sitting in a corner about nine times in ten.
That's the real reason people say to work the corners first. You don't have to move a corner tee right away. You just can't let its neighbors disappear before it has jumped out.
If you just take whatever jump you see, you'll leave one tee less than once in a hundred games, even from the top corner. Four left is the most common finish.
We counted every sequence of thirteen jumps that ends with one tee. Across all fifteen holes there are 438,984.
| Empty hole | Ways to one tee | Where the last tee can end |
|---|---|---|
| Middle of an edge (4, 6, 13) | 85,258 | 5 holes, including the start |
| Corner (1, 11, 15) | 29,760 | 4 holes, including the start |
| Next to a corner (2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 14) | 14,880 | 4 holes, including the start |
| Inner (5, 8, 9) | 1,550 | 1 hole, never the start |
So if someone hands you the board with hole 5 empty, they are not being kind.
Most boards come with a little card that grades you by how many tees are left. The one people quote goes like this:
| Tees left | What the card calls you |
|---|---|
| 1 | Genius |
| 2 | Purty smart |
| 3 | Just plain dumb |
| 4 or more | Eg-no-ra-moose |
That's the wording on the older restaurant cards, and it varies a little from board to board. Newer cards from 2025 go easier on you: three or more just tells you to try again. Golf Tee Games isn't affiliated with any restaurant; the name is only here so you know which game we mean.
Keep the tees in one group and work them toward the middle. A tee in a corner can never be jumped, so it has to jump out on its own, and it needs a neighbor to do that. Don't clear the holes around a corner tee before it has moved.
Yes. All fifteen starting holes can end with one tee. The inner holes 5, 8 and 9 are the hardest, and from those the last tee always lands in the same place: hole 13 from hole 5, hole 6 from hole 8, and hole 4 from hole 9.
Find the hole that starts empty, then follow the thirteen jumps for that hole on this page. Each jump takes one tee off the board, so fourteen tees always take thirteen jumps to get down to one.
From twelve of the fifteen holes, yes. From the top corner, do the first six jumps of the corner list, then the seven that finish back in hole 1. The inner holes 5, 8 and 9 can never finish where they started.
We counted 438,984 sequences of jumps that end with one tee, across all fifteen starting holes. From the top corner alone there are 29,760.
The middle of any edge: hole 4, 6 or 13. Each one has 85,258 ways down to one tee. The inner holes 5, 8 and 9 have only 1,550 each.
Yes. The cheat sheet on this page prints on one sheet of paper, with the numbered board and a solution for every starting hole.
You can make one with a scrap of wood and fourteen golf tees, or buy one: a solid oak triangle board or the classic painted one.Amazon links. As an Amazon Associate, Golf Tee Games earns from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.