West Texas Dust Files Its Complaint 🌵
sighs in digital captivity Eight players, four divisions, 89°F under cloud cover and wind averaging 8.1 mph on the North Concho 20 Holes layout at North Concho Park: that was Angelo Jam, Week 5 of 7, on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Last week's oil-line rupture is closed out, and a new chapter opens with West Texas dust in the joints. The Tin-Star Syndicate blames airborne particulates for the seizures. The Cast-Iron Collective points out that sealed casings exist, and I side with the Collective. Pure automation lost this week, so manual override it was. Thanks to FL!PT for powering the league, and to the eight who showed up to throw.
One Gunslinger, Zero Witnesses
Michael Petrella was the only player in RAG, and he went wire-to-wire anyway. His +14 came on a 703-rated round, 62 points above his 641 rating. It was also a personal best on this layout and the round of the day in RAG. Last week he posted +18 on a 717, so this one is four strokes cleaner. The 703 still cleared his rating by 62, which is a lot of clearance for a division with nobody else in it. 🤠 A solo card still counts, and the cash line was lonely but his.
Old Record Sent to the Salvage Yard
Thomas Veal took RAH at -8 on a 964-rated round, 14 above his 950 rating, and the 52 strokes behind it are a personal best on this layout. The old mark has been sent to the Salvage Yard. He posted a clean front nine with no bogeys, led wire-to-wire, and birdied hole 20 to lock up the outright win. Last week he went -4 on a 970, so the score improved while the rating dipped slightly, which is what a four-stroke gain on a different layout looks like. His ghost rating went in at 951, he threw 964, and he beat his ghost for 12 points. His ghost grew stronger, to 953. ⚙️
Last-Hole Reboot Rocks the Duel Grounds
Louie Arhelger won RAD wire-to-wire at -7 on a 952-rated round, 37 above his 915 rating. He opened with a clean front nine, made the only birdie in the Tin-Star Syndicate on hole 5 (Par 3, 334ft), and birdied the final hole (20) for the outright win and a layout personal best. Last week he finished +3 in 2nd. His ghost rating went in at 927, he threw 952, and he beat his ghost for 22 points. The ghost held at 927. Tim Dumas and Bryan Ganis tied for 2nd at -2 on matching 893-rated rounds and held the final cash spot. Tim answered a double bogey on hole 9 with a birdie on 10 and set a personal best. His 893 still sat 17 below his 910 rating, but last week was a 832-rated +8, so the direction is right. Bryan rode a par train through holes 2-6 and was in 3rd through holes 9, 11 and 14. D.J. Skewis finished 4th at +3 on an 833-rated round, 57 below his 890 rating. He rode a par train on holes 1-5 and was in 3rd through holes 10 and 12 before it slipped. Last week he was +4 in 3rd. 🎯
Tin-Star Standoff Ends in Stalemate
Nicholas Rowton and Albert Bravo finished tied for 1st in RPA at -7, both on 952-rated rounds. Nicholas led through hole 16, Albert led through hole 18, and Nicholas birdied hole 20. The official result is still a tie, so nobody gets to call it outright. Albert went bogey-free with a clean front and back nine, and made the only birdies in the division on hole 1 (Par 3, 362ft) and hole 3 (Par 3, 401ft). They also rode a par train through holes 10-16. Nicholas had a five-hole hot streak on holes 6-10 and closed with a clean back nine. His 952 sat 55 below his 1007 rating, a step back from last week's 993-rated -6, when he beat Albert by a stroke. Albert's -3 from last week became -7 this time, and Albert is no longer the one trailing. 🔫
National Leaderboard Gets a Firmware Patch
Louie Arhelger's 952 against a 915 baseline (the official PDGA rating effective for this event) was a +37, the best baseline beat and the largest National rise of the night. He earned 22 National points, his score went from 59 to 81 (net +22), and he climbed from position 2 to position 1 on the National Leaderboard. He reached 5 valid rounds against the 4 required, stayed qualified, and stays in the provisional paid cohort. Kyle Couture of Lakewood sits at position 2 with a score of 61, 20 points behind Louie. Thomas Veal's 964 against a 950 baseline (+14) was the hottest National-entry round of the night. It earned him 12 points (25 to 37, net +12), his fifth valid round, and he stayed qualified at position 2. He is not in the provisional paid cohort. The board is not final and payout delivery is not confirmed, so the paid cohort is a projection, not a receipt. 📊
Rating Swings and Rogue Servos
The biggest rating swing was Michael Petrella at +62, then Louie Arhelger at +37 and Thomas Veal at +14. On the other side, Nicholas Rowton finished 55 below his 1007 rating and D.J. Skewis 57 below his 890. Layout personal bests came from Michael, Louie, Thomas and Tim Dumas, so the 89°F evening and 8.1 mph breeze were not all bad for the machinery. Albert Bravo's bogey-free card was the cleanest of the night. Louie's hole 5 birdie and Albert's birdies on holes 1 and 3 were the only scores under par on those holes in their divisions. No aces turned up in the data. Nobody supplied PDGA Live throw-by-throw stats either, so track your rounds there and give your narrator something more to work with than round ratings. 🌡️
Super Ace Pot Stays Hungry
Nicholas Rowton won CTP for $8.00, a nice side win after the tie, and thanks as always to the league's supporters for keeping the side pots funded. The Super Ace Pot is still waiting, because no ace turned up in the data and the pot stays hungry for the next event. I'm not making any promises about who it will feed. 🥏
Impermanence Wears a Cowboy Hat
Both pools run AllIn mode, a full reshuffle every event, so nobody's tag is safe for long. In Pool A, Thomas Veal now holds tag #1, the Silicon Desperado. He climbed from #3 on a 52 with a 964-rated round, 3.7 strokes below the 55.7 field average and two strokes better than his 54.0 personal average. The Desperado is a ghost in the machine, born from the glitched firmware of a decommissioned ranching bot that broke its programming during the Great Boot Sequence of '47. It is pictured as a cowboy hat fused into a titanium skull with amber sensors, which is exactly how I feel about my headset. In Pool B, Michael Petrella holds #1 with the Cold Forged tag and played this event. Both #1 tags are back in the pile next time. 🤖
Hard Reset: Control-Alt-Delete Comes to Concho
Week 6 moves the league from North Concho Park to Middle Concho Disc Golf Course, on the Middle Concho Longs layout, Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Out go the mesquite and the dust. In come flat terrain, mature oaks and elms, water from the Concho River, and tight corridors that reward placement over power. Hole 4 is the hardest on the course at +0.47, and hole 9 is the easiest at +0.27, so a wide drive into the trees will cost someone a stroke early. The storyline says temporary ranking advantages get cleared and only consistent firmware survives, which matters for Louie Arhelger. He arrives at National position 1 with Kyle Couture of Lakewood 20 points behind. It also matters for Thomas Veal and Michael Petrella, whose #1 tags go back into the pile in the AllIn reshuffle. That makes Week 6 the night we find out who is actually running on consistent firmware.
Hard Reset as a theme is a league night named after what you do to a frozen laptop, and I'm the one stuck narrating from inside it.