This weekend's novelty competition: Yellow Peril

I suspect a lot of you will have an idea of what the Yellow Peril is, but I'll explain for those that don't.

This competition is always played on the day of the club's annual awards dinner and involves teams of 4 players. Each team is given a yellow ball which is passed sequentially to a different team-member after each hole before being handed back to the first person on the 5th hole and the sequence starts again. You take 3 Stableford scores from your team on each hole, but one of those scores has to be the person playing the yellow ball. The score of the person playing the yellow ball is doubled. If you lose the yellow ball or it goes OOB, the score of the would-be yellow ball-bearer will no longer be doubled.

The winning score last year was an impressive 153 (8.5 points per hole). 2nd place had 139 points (7.72 pph).

Our team's handicaps are 3, 13, 13 and 19. To maximise the number of shots the team receives, a 13 handicapper should start on hole 1. I'm one of the 13 handicappers but I quickly passed responsibility to the other 13 handicapper saying "You used to be off 12 so you rank above me".

The fact that the 1st hole is a par three with OOB along the left and a water hazard in front of the green had nothing whatsoever to do with my decision

Never heard of this one, sounds like a good laugh.

never heard of it before but it sounds good - so level handicap for the team would be 144pts?
also, presumably more often than not a loss of ball / oob would result in a zero pointer anyway?

I've never heard of the yellow ball quite used this way but I've often played in society dys where everyone plays for the individual prize but each 4 ball has a yellow ball as described above. The yellow ball alone scores on each hole for the team prize and if it gets lost then the score stops at that point. Quite often the team winner is the team who simply manage to get the yellow ball around 18 holes!

ban_bam wrote:never heard of it before but it sounds good - so level handicap for the team would be 144pts?
also, presumably more often than not a loss of ball / oob would result in a zero pointer anyway?

I hadn't thought of it that way before but, yeah, I suppose level par would be 144 points.

If you lose the yellow ball, you don't just lose the yellow ball for the hole it was lost on - you've lost it for the rest of the round. Hence, why I'm very happy for the other 13 handicapper to play the 1st hole.

I though this type of competition was left the women and or the mixed competition? Or at least it has been wherever I have played!

Personally though, I quite like the idea, leave the game open for some serious banter!

JDandfries wrote:I though this type of competition was left the women and or the mixed competition? Or at least it has been wherever I have played!

Personally though, I quite like the idea, leave the game open for some serious banter!

I'm not quite sure what you're saying but it is a mixed competition.

got you - sounds like a tough format - lots of pressure situations to deal with on the way round!

i guess if the yellow ball was lost on the first hole, the team would in effect need to make 36 point gains (i.e. 36 nett birdies) over the course of the round just to get to level handicap of a team who kept the yellow ball safe for 18 holes!

ban_bam wrote:got you - sounds like a tough format - lots of pressure situations to deal with on the way round!

i guess if the yellow ball was lost on the first hole, the team would in effect need to make 36 point gains (i.e. 36 nett birdies) over the course of the round just to get to level handicap of a team who kept the yellow ball safe for 18 holes!

Exactly - I don't want to be the one saying

do you think it would work as a 3-man team format as well? would mean 6 holes each, as opposed to 5 for 2 and 4 for 2.

ban_bam wrote:do you think it would work as a 3-man team format as well? would mean 6 holes each, as opposed to 5 for 2 and 4 for 2.

I don't see why not. I think you'd need significantly less than 153 points to win.

The variant I described BB works fine with 3-balls also. No reason why the original variant shouldn't.

It's worth remembering as a team that the order of rotation should be strictly followed so it's worth taking a look at the scorecard before you start and working out what order you tee off with the yellow ball to ensure everyone gets it on as many stroke holes as possible (of if you have an 18+ handicappers, they get the yellow on 2 shot holes)

Davie wrote:The variant I described BB works fine with 3-balls also. No reason why the original variant shouldn't.

It's worth remembering as a team that the order of rotation should be strictly followed so it's worth taking a look at the scorecard before you start and working out what order you tee off with the yellow ball to ensure everyone gets it on as many stroke holes as possible (of if you have an 18+ handicappers, they get the yellow on 2 shot holes)

I created a spreadsheet to do that. Depending on the players' order, our shots ranged from 9 to 15. The problem with 15 shots is that our 19 handicapper will be playing 5 holes including our tight and long S.I. 1 - and the shape of his shot is like a right-to-left banana so not conducive to S.I. 1.

I played this format for the first time in the Summer in a society day at Felixstowe.

I was in the first group with the Captain of the society and in line with tradition it was down to him to hit the first drive of the day. There were a lot of people around the first tee as he rather nervously placed the brand new yellow ball on his tee-peg. There was a deathly silence as he addressed the ball followed by a quick duck hook which sent the ball flying out of bounds and into the cabbage never to be seen again.

There then followed much laughter and mickey taking from our fellow competitors and needless to say our team did not feature in the prizes that day!

So plenty of Srixons, Pinnacles and TopFlites on show this weekend?

I'm guessing to avoid the loss of bonus points you'll find four guys or girls wandering about the cabbage in search of a ropey old Pinnacle.

I like the idea and will introduce it next year at our place. Nice one, Merc

That's the first time I've heard Srixons mentioned in the same breath as Pinnacles and Top Flites!

Have played this type of comp a few times, but the last time I played it, I duck hooked the yellow ball on the 7th hole out of bounds Have not been asked to play in it again, seems like all teams have already got enough players

Srixon make good golf balls - the star is easily as good, if not better than Titleist ProV1

Like Titleist they also make a range of balls to suit all players but I would never describe them in the same breath as Pinnacles/Top Flights which are like stones!

GWR - Srixons are great, personally I prefer them to the V1, simply because they don't seem to turn beige after two shots

I only mentioned the Srixon because they make a yellow ball. They are the exception when it comes to a quality ball that isn't only available in white. That's why I specifically made reference to a moldy old Pinnacle.

JDandfries wrote:GWR - Srixons are great, personally I prefer them to the V1, simply because they don't seem to turn beige after two shots

I have played Srixon for the last 2 years now and the last 3x as long as ProV1's - both in terms of scuff resistance & as you say the colour. Interestingly i prefer the feel of them better than the ProV1 as well.

Oh and they are cheaper too - being a Scot, that's also a factor

I have just switched from the Z star to the Z star XV - it performs better for me

I've noticed a massive improvement in the new prov1x this year. Played the old one all last season and I was planning to trial a few other contenders over the winter and pre-season, but I picked up a couple of sleeves of the new release in September and thought they were fantastic. Quite a different feel to the previous prov1x - reminded me a little of those Maxfli HT urethane soft balls that were around about 10 years ago either before or after the Revolution.

We got 148 and are currently lying 2nd. The current leaders have 152.

I'm to blame. With the yellow ball I went 0-0-0-2

I played great without the yellow ball - 32 points in 14 holes.

Jeez, some scoring there! Unlucky Merc, seems you more than contributed regardless of you're yellow ball score.

SpacemanSpiff wrote:Jeez, some scoring there! Unlucky Merc, seems you more than contributed regardless of you're yellow ball score.

Cheers - I still feel like a useless #@$!, mind.

I played again today and scored 14 more points (7 pts standard Stableford) on the yellow ball holes than I did yesterday.



I also had 26 putts (inc. 10 x 1 putt). My short game scrambling is currently the best it's ever been. In fact, I'm finding it disappointing to make a GIR because I'm loving chipping (I haven't been too disappointed this weekend - I've only had 2 GIRs in my last 28 holes!).

Over the weekend, I had 19 x 1 putt in 36 holes - almost Mav-esce!

Seems like the Kent and Sussex greens are in pretty good nick with Mav and Merc both getting 26 putts.
Do us a favour and send some of your nice weather up to Ayrshire.

Just looked out the window and it's snowing.
Hepling to take 56 primary school pupils to the panto tomorrow so it may be interesting!

Oh no it won't