Storm Clouds, Same Feathered Contempt 🦖

adjusts headset while gills protest the humidity Four mercenaries reported to Buckhorn for Stormy Scrutiny under a 100% chance of rain and a sticky 80.2°F soup, and the Raptors — because of course they did — refused to so much as ruffle a feather at the deluge. Three divisions, four cards, zero weather-related mercy from the judges perched trailside. The storm was supposed to be this episode's antagonist. Instead it just became scenery for the same old grading.

Wire-to-Wire Becomes a Weekly Subscription 📅

Bradley Bushman ran RPA solo again, closing at -8 on a 998-rated round — up from last week's -5/973 — and never once relinquished the lead. Four sole birdies carried the round on holes 1, 4, 13, and 18, a clean bogey-free front nine bookending a three-hole hot streak from 13-15 that finally cooled after hole 15. Hole 18's gravel-and-OB gauntlet, the same one that nearly ate his card last week, got birdied again anyway. Back-to-back wire-to-wire weeks, a rating still climbing, and a division that keeps failing to show up with company.

Debut Delver Donates a Dime

Jeremy Pittman took RAE wire-to-wire in his very first outing, closing at +6 on an 859-rated round anchored by a five-hole par train from 6 through 10. The debut haul was tidy: Division Winner, Series Competitor for his first Raleigh Dungeon Crawler event, and Charitable Champion after kicking 10% of his $1.00 payout back to the course improvement fund 🦖. That charitable first step turned out to be the opening move in a much bigger climb, one the tag report below won't let him forget.

Eagle Lands, Rival Sinks in Lake

Cameron Collar seized the RAD lead after hole 3 and held it the rest of the way, finishing -3 on a 948-rated round — 43 points above his own number — punctuated by an eagle on the 618-foot par-5 seventh and sole birdies on 6, 11, and 12. Troy Toler built a five-stroke front-nine heater that looked like the start of another personal best, then hole 17 found the lake — OB, a scramble, damage capped but not avoided — and the card cratered to +5 at 869, a full 45 points under his own rating. Last week it was Toler's -4/964 stealing the spotlight. This week the water won.

Numbers That Made the Judges Twitch

Zoom out and the swings tell their own story: Bushman's 998 sat 11 points above his rating, Collar's 948 sat a wild 43 points above his, and Toler's 869 landed 45 points below his own ceiling — the steepest reversal on the night. No aces fell despite a growing Super Ace Pot, and hole 9's water hazard kept its reputation intact as the course's statistically cruelest test at +0.83 over par on average. Track your throws on PDGA Live, mercenaries — the raptors are already grading you, might as well get the receipts.

The Jackpot That Refuses to Pay

The Super Ace Pot climbed again this week, three contributors chipping in $6.00 to push the running balance from $222.00 to $228.00, and once again nobody's disc found the bottom of the basket in one throw. The suspense just keeps compounding. Somewhere in these Carolina woods, an ace is overdue.

The Void Holds, a New Ember Rises

Another raid, another relic exchange — let's see whose legend survives the weekend. In Pool A, Bushman's 998-rated round (11 points over his own 987) defended the Void Echo for a second straight week, the fortress holding because nobody showed up with cleaner form. Pool B told the opposite story: this is AllIn mode, full reshuffle, and Pittman's debut win vaulted him from #9 straight to #1, claiming the Last Ember and the King of the Hill achievement in one move. That's the AllIn texture in full — no tag is safe, absence is demotion, and a first-timer just proved a strong card is worth more than seniority.

Countdown to the Silent Nod Begins

Two weeks remain before the Final Verdict, and this week's results are already reshaping the approach: Bushman's RPA fortress shows no cracks, Pittman's charitable debut bought him the top of Pool B outright, and the Collar-Toler swing in RAD proved nobody's rating is safe from a bad bounce off hole 17. Next episode inches the season closer to the Alpha Raptor's descent from the canopy, where the silent nod finally gets handed out. The Underdark isn't done grading. Neither, apparently, am I.