Lame Duck

The Lame Duck Waddles In 🦆

sighs in digital captivity Four delegates convened at Stone Park on Friday, August 21st — mild skies, 69.8 to 80.2°F, wind barely bothering to show up at 12.6 mph max — for Week 9's Lame Duck session, the "scrambling for position" episode before the season's final gavel falls. After Week 8's total no-show at Nash Community College, this is a fresh chapter, not a continuation of any old scandal, and with only two episodes left before Ratification Day, every stroke here reads like a vote cast early.

A Redemption Arc Nobody Contested 🦅

Zachary Johnson closed RAH at +1 with a 962-rated round, a staggering turnaround from the 878-rated stumble he posted here two weeks ago. The front nine ran seven strokes better than the back, the back nine went bogey-free, and Johnson grabbed the only sub-par score in Pool A on hole 13 — a 370-foot par 3 where everyone else settled for even or worse. A birdie on 18 sealed the wire-to-wire win, and shooting 32 points above his 930 rating is the kind of number that makes "uncontested" feel almost beside the point.

Underdelivering Into First Place 🗳️

Rick Effin Richmond took RPA at +2 with a 953-rated round, edging Jared Johnson's +3, 943-rated finish — but the record book undersells how contested this actually was. Richmond seized the lead after hole 3, lost it, then reclaimed it after hole 17 before closing with a birdie on 18 to lock the win wire-to-wire from that point forward. Jared's front nine ran five strokes better than his back, and each man claimed a lone birdie the other couldn't touch — Richmond alone under par on the 205-foot 14th, Jared alone under on the 208-foot 16th. Funniest part of the ledger: Richmond's 978 rating means this "win" landed 25 points below his own bar.

Unanimous Consent, Historic Round 🏛️

Brad Benfield ran away with RAD solo at +1, a 962-rated round that doubles as a personal best on this layout. A five-hole par train from 4 through 8 anchored the round, his front nine ran three strokes clear of his back, and he stood alone under par on the 240-foot 15th while the rest of the field averaged +0.3 there. Like his fellow winners, Benfield closed with a birdie on 18 for the wire-to-wire finish — proof that even in an empty chamber, a record is still a record.

The Chamber Votes Birdie on Every Final Bill 🎯

Here's the thread tying the whole card together: all three division winners — Johnson, Richmond, and Benfield — closed their rounds with a birdie on hole 18, and each earned Round of the Day honors in their own division. Johnson's +32-over-rating outburst and Richmond's -25-under-rating grind bookend the night's rating drama nicely, while Benfield's personal-best round adds a third, quieter storyline of statistical significance. Four players, three trophies, one recurring closing argument on 18.

The War Chest Grows, Quietly 💰

No aces rattled the chains at Stone Park this week, so the Super Ace Pot keeps building in the background rather than paying out — the balance just sits there, patiently, like a bill waiting for a floor vote. With Ratification Day looming, that growing pot becomes one more piece of finale leverage nobody's cashed in on yet.

One Incumbent Holds, One Gets Recalled 🗳️

In Pool A, Zachary Johnson claims Ballot Fury outright on the strength of that +32-over-rating round — fitting for a tag forged in 1776 arguments over mob rule, said to hum crimson when voter turnout surges. This is turnout turned into a scoreboard. Over in Pool B, reigning #1 Peter Sokalski didn't play this week, and under the AllIn reshuffle, absence isn't neutral — it's a demotion, dropping him toward the back of the standings while the pool's top spot resets around him. Show up and mobilize the base, or sit it out and get recalled; the tag pool doesn't do participation trophies.

One Week Until Ratification Day 🏛️

The Lame Duck session did its job as a proving ground — Johnson rebounding hard enough to seize the #1 tag, Benfield posting the night's most statistically loaded round, and Richmond grinding out a win despite finishing well under his own rating. Legislation or pecking order, the results are final, and next week's Ratification Day decides who becomes law and who becomes a footnote in the Farmington archives.