The Yellow Ball Tournament Experience-Part 1

Written on 7-15-26.

       Greg asked me to play with him in the Yellow Ball Tournament at Hillcrest.  I didn’t know who else would be on our team, but I had an idea Marc would probably be one of them.  I was right.  He and another guy, Chuck, made up our foursome.

It was a tough tournament for four reasons.  First, this was my first time playing with this format, so I didn’t have the benefit of experience.  Second, I had not played at Hillcrest yet this season, so I was “Hillcrest Rusty.”  Third, when I played the yellow ball it was on some of the most difficult holes (I will explain later), and the last reason is because I was the A player.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I was the A player, a 16.6 handicap.

Until next time…

Written on 7-16-25.

We did decently well.  Our team score ended up...

being a 135.5, and what follows is how the scoring worked.  I will write where ended up placing later.  We started on hole #14, so I will use that as my example.  Greg had the privilege of playing the yellow ball on our first hole.  They were Mizuno balls with numbers written on them.  That’s how the committee could keep track of them.  Every team was given two at the start.  If both were returned at the end of the tournament, they would take one stroke off of the total score.  If one was lost, we would not have that extra stroke advantage.  If both were lost, our team would be disqualified, but we could still “enjoy” the rest of the round.   

Greg scored a bogey five.  The rest of us scrambled, and we earned a par.  Our combined score for that hole was then a nine.  On the next hole, Marc played the yellow ball, and Greg, Chuck, and I did the scramble part.  It continued on like that until we came to hole #1, and that was when the A players started the rotation.  It went A, B, C, and D from there.  I also know the yellow ball scores were modified according to our handicaps. 

Our total scramble score ended up being -3.  It could have been better, but that was respectable, I thought.  We got our birdies on holes 1, 7, and 12.  On hole #12, I got it all by myself.  This last birdie helped our moods considerably, because we knew we needed better scores to have any chance of placing.

Hillcrest-Hole #12-Birdie #6 of 2025

Greg teed off with his 9-iron first and hit the green.  The flag was on the left side, but his tee shot went long and right.  At least we had one on the green, though.  

I went next with my 7-iron.  It was playing close to 150 yards, and the wind was not helping.  My ball landed on the green on the right side, too, but it was more even with the hole.  We were happy to have two on the green, because this is the intimidating (if you let it intimidate you) over-the-water par three.  Marc ended up even farther right, so we chose to play mine; it had less break and was a bit closer  than Greg’s.  

Chuck played out to the right with the yellow ball to avoid the water completely.  Then he put it on the green with his second shot.  So far, so good, we all thought.  I got the advantage of a read from his putt which was a little longer and a bit more break-y.  I chose a lower line than what I had originally thought, and I let my putt go.  

It went across the green, arced to the left, and went in!  We had a brief celebration for earning one more birdie before our final hole.  

*I just noticed that Greg put down a bogey for Chuck on this hole, but he really scored a double bogey.  I remember he used three putts.  Oh, well.  When we first added up our score, he forgot to put down our birdie on #12, too.  Guess we should have paid more attention to our scores after the round.  It would not have mattered, however, after seeing that.  The winning score in our flight was 128.4.