Sky Blue West

Anna Page West Opens Its Trial Doors 😑

adjusts visor The mockumentary crew packs up the East Gallery set and hauls the cameras north of the parking lot, because Sky Blue West is officially in session. Four Claimants — that's the whole trial docket this week — stepped into the tree corridors of Anna Page West on Sunday, August 16, under a mild 74.5-83.5°F sky with barely a breath of wind and a 36% chance of rain that never seemed to matter. New course, first-ever course record up for grabs, and per the season's own lore: holding position now paints a target on your back, and radiance that isn't actively defended has a nasty habit of evaporating. Nobody in this field found that out the hard way faster than the back nine did.

History Gets Written in 52 Strokes 🏆

James Franklin didn't just win RPA — he never let anyone else touch the lead, closing at -5 for a 975-rated round that stands as the inaugural Anna Page West course record. Six times he was the only player in the Main Pool to go under par: holes 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, and 17, a stretch that included a personal hot streak from 10-12 before it snapped at three holes. His front nine ran five strokes clear of his back, and then he simply refused to bogey his way home, closing clean. Rating climbed from 964 to 975 week over week — the Opposition's margin of defeat actually widened. That's not a rival gaining ground. That's a dragon getting comfortable in its own cave.

Led Through 18, Lost the Plot 📉

Eric Spatz posted RAG's only score, +21 with a 694 rating, and somewhere in there is a cautionary tale about front-loading disaster. Six cold holes to open the round (1-6), a stretch of stability in the middle, then six bogeys-or-worse from 13 through 18 to close the door on himself. He reportedly led through hole 18 at one juncture before the finish erased it, fading to 5th overall in event placement. Rating dipped another 10 points from Week 1's 704 — the slump isn't a blip anymore, it's a pattern the Opposition is watching closely.

25 Points Above Rating, One Spot Shy 💪

Russell B came back swinging — literally 25 points above his own 815 rating, carding an 840 that was RAF's round of the day. A four-hole cold streak from 13-16 threatened to derail the whole thing, but he powered through it to finish +8, good for 3rd overall. That's a jump from Week 1's 4th place at +11, an 80-point rating surge, and still just one spot outside the cash line — the last paid position stopped at 2nd. Russell also earns this week's Charitable Champion nod, donating 10% of his $1.50 in winnings — fifteen cents — to the course improvement fund. Small number, real gesture, and a tip of the visor to the sponsors and funds that keep courses like Anna Page thriving.

Another Lead, Another Late Fade 📉

Charles Beaver survived not one but two separate cold streaks — holes 3-6 and again 14-16 — and reportedly led through 18 before fading to 4th overall at +10 with an 819 rating. That's a hard landing after Week 1's runner-up finish and 851-rated flex; the rating dropped 32 points and the score swung seven strokes worse. Whatever form carried him through the East Gallery's open fairways didn't survive the tighter corridors of the West course's tree walls.

Hole 11's Lonely Birdie Club 🌳

If there's a signature moment from this trial run, it's James Franklin dropping a 2 on the 453-foot hole 11 while the rest of the Main Pool averaged +0.8 — a deuce nobody else in the field came close to touching. No aces, no CTPs reported this week, but the round-of-the-day sweep tells its own story: 975 in RPA, 840 in RAF, 819 in RAE, 694 in RAG. That's a field split wide open by rating gaps, and Russell B's 25-points-above-rating performance stands as the single best overperformance on the card. Someone's tracking their PDGA Live stats correctly — the rest of you, take notes.

Still Standing, Still Steaming 🔥

James Franklin logs his first successful defense of the #1 Humidity TremorA tag — the AllIn reshuffle churned the rest of the board, but this slot stayed exactly where it started: 1→1. Two weeks of Opposition pressure, and the tag's lore holds true right down to the heat-shimmer imagery — a 975 that landed 13 points above his personal rating did the talking. Same radiance, same verdict, same sweltering status quo. The dragon claims another disc in the drink, and apparently also another week of this tag.

Basecamp Before the Alpine Assessment 🏔️

Two weeks in, and the standings are already sorting into tiers: Franklin's runaway radiance up top, Russell B's charitable near-miss climbing the middle, and two late collapses from Spatz and Beaver marking the danger zone. The season's early sorting has begun, and next up is the Alpine Assessment — the first major event where the field constricts and the pretenders get separated from whoever's actually luminous. sighs Somehow we're still rolling tape. See you at altitude.