Valley View

Apex Predators Turn On Each Other 😑

sighs in digital captivity Twenty-eight Ronin took the tee at Johnny Roberts under a sweaty 76.8°F-to-87.3°F stretch, gusts kissing 12.4 mph and a 20% chance of rain that never quite committed. Last week's Molt narrative promised shedding skins; this week the Apex faction skipped straight to biting each other. Shane Steinhoff and Mark Golden both landed at -17 in RAH, and when the top branch splits down the middle instead of one predator running the table, the hierarchy gets interesting fast. Episode 6's promised in-fighting arrived exactly on schedule, right at the summit.

Hole 18 Refuses to Pick a King 😑

Steinhoff grabbed the RAH lead after hole 3, Golden wrestled it away after hole 7, and from there neither one blinked. Both closed bogey-free and birdied the 18th to force a shared crown at -17, a 1007-rated round apiece — Golden's a new personal best on this layout, 83 points above his own rating, Steinhoff's 66 over his. Kyle Huffman caught fire from hole 5 through 18 (14 birdies-or-better) to lock down 3rd at -15 and the final cash spot. Todd Jacko mounted his own back-nine charge — four strokes better than the front — but it only pulled him from 5th to 4th at -12, still 24 points below his rating. Matt Urich posted a clean front nine and still finished -7, a brutal 78 points under rating. 🦅

Hole 5 Onward, Nobody Else's House 😑

Over in RAF, Michael Penney led after hole 3, Jason Skjaret took it after hole 4, and then Daniel Harper seized it for good after hole 5 and never gave it back. Two separate hot streaks — holes 4 through 11, then 13 through 15 — carried him to a bogey-free -12 (925 rated), round of the day. Nathan Dodson climbed into 3rd after hole 7 on his way to a real turnaround: last week's -1 and 13th place became this week's -7 and 8th, a 98-point rating jump. Penney's story ran the opposite direction entirely — last week's personal-best -10 collapsed to -4, a 100-point rating freefall that's the clearest cautionary tale in a canopy still shedding skin.

Third Place, Revolving Door 😑

Lou White took the RAE lead after hole 3, lost it to Danny Laake after hole 4, then stole it back for keeps on hole 18 — both finished tied at -11 (909 rated). Third place, meanwhile, was a revolving door: Laake held it briefly after hole 2, tyler saez claimed it after hole 5, David Pionke cycled through it after holes 6, 11, and 16, and Jordan Keeter grabbed it twice more after holes 10 and 12. Pionke's bogey-free close finally locked him into 3rd at -10, missing the cash line by one spot for a second straight week. But the real headline is Alexander Harken's crash — last week's RAE champion at -11 fell all the way to -2 and 11th, a 149-point rating collapse that's the loudest molt casualty of the entire card. 🐍

Redemption at Hole 15, Sort Of 😑

RAD turned into an early tangle worthy of the theme: a three-way tie for the lead after hole 4 between Anthony Scoglio, Dane Scanlon, and Todd Moore, then another three-way share after hole 7 with Gabe Zansberg joining Scanlon and Moore. Zansberg's hole-8 bogey knocked him out of it, Moore took it solo after hole 11, and Scanlon snatched it back after hole 13. Moore closed it out at -14 (958 rated, 56 over rating) — a direct answer to last week's hole-15 heartbreak this booth promised him a rematch for. Scanlon's -13 was also a personal best, 51 points over his own rating. A three-way tie for 3rd — Scoglio, Kyle Maute, and Zansberg, all at -11 — packed the pool even tighter, and Zansberg's hole 17 heroics get their own spotlight below.

The Loneliest -15 in the Canopy 😑

Hobs Apell had the entire RPA division to himself and still turned in a round worth talking about — bogey-free front and back nines, a hot streak that ran eight holes deep (3 through 10) before cooling, then a finishing kick of five birdies-or-better from hole 14 to 18. The result: -15, a 974-rated round, division round of the day. No competition, no drama, just a scorecard that would've held up on any card in the building. 🦋

Pat Maher's Encore Nobody Wanted 😑

RAG opened with Pat Maher and tawny saez sharing the lead after hole 3, but August Maher seized it after hole 7 and rode it home, closing his own cold streak (holes 12 through 15) to finish at +4 (662 rated, 67 points over rating) — a real rebound from last week's late collapse. Pat Maher's week flipped hard the other way: last week's personal-best -1 and 13th place became this week's +8, still 13th, a 149-point rating swing straight down. tawny saez's cold finish — five bogeys-or-worse from hole 14 to 18 — matched her tied for 2nd at +8 alongside Pat Maher.

The Par-3s That Bit Back 😑

The rating math across the field told its own story. Steinhoff and Golden both cleared their ratings by 66 and 83 points respectively for that RAH tie, and Todd Moore (+56) and Dane Scanlon (+51) matched that energy in RAD. But Johnny Roberts collected its toll elsewhere — Alexander Harken (-107), Matt Urich (-78), Pat Maher (-37), Peter Cannon (-33), Todd Jacko (-24), and Gabe Zansberg (-23) all posted rounds well under their own ratings. This is a putter's course, 46 years of proving that touch beats power, and this week the gap between the two ends of that spectrum was as wide as it's been all season. 🌿

153 Feet, One Perfect Throw 😑

The Ace Pot finally cracked open — hole 17, a 153-foot par 3, and Gabe Zansberg put one straight through the chains for a $49.00 payout. It landed right in the middle of RAD's stacked finish, part of the back-nine surge (three birdies from hole 16 to 18) that pulled him from 6th to 5th overall. The pot resets now, which means next week's suspense starts from zero all over again.

Two Different Cards, Same Seventeen Skins 😑

Three skins cards, 13 players, $94.50 changed hands. On the 9:40 AM card, Kyle Huffman opened with a birdie on hole 3 and never let go, hauling 17 skins for $42.50. On the 3:40 PM card, Logan Painter matched that exact 17-skin total for $25.50. Shane Steinhoff took the 3:20 PM card with 11 skins ($13.75), and Todd Moore scooped a 7-skin, $8.75 carryover on hole 7. Check the skins playbook if any of that math looked unfamiliar. 💰

Two Pools, Two Kings, Same Fragile Grip 😑

Pool A's Dusk Wanderer stayed exactly where it was — Steinhoff held it into the week and holds it out, the threshold guardian's three eyes apparently unbothered by a tied leaderboard. Pool B's Storm Heron rides with Harper, whose bogey-free -12 kept him on top of RAF for a second straight week. AllIn mode means every tag gets fully re-evaluated on standings each event, defense or not — and both #1s played, both #1s stayed #1. But with Huffman's -15 sitting just two strokes off the RAH summit, the Dusk Wanderer's grip on the canopy looks thinner than the scoreboard suggests.

Next Week: Someone's Disguise Fails 😑

The in-fighting arrived right on schedule — Steinhoff and Golden splitting the RAH crown, Harken and Pat Maher cratering out of last week's spotlight, Huffman closing the gap from three strokes back to two. Next episode, the season's arc turns from infighting to exposure: the Camouflage tactic fails, and someone riding high right now gets caught out in the open. Four weeks remain before the hierarchy locks in for good.