Southwest Blow? More Like Southwest Sigh 🌬️

adjusts visor Five players showed up at Fort Tuthill's Yellows for Wind Gauge, Week 3, expecting the sustained southwest blow the storyline promised — the kind local memory says toppled timber back in '96 — and instead got 65.6°F, partly cloudy skies, and a wind averaging a whopping 2.8 mph. New chapter, same ponderosas, minus the drama the name advertised. The chimney-smoke checks, the pinecone-drop readings, the freight-train canopy roar — all that wind-reading ritual barely got tested this week, because the mountain apparently decided to sit this one out and let the scorecards do the talking instead.

Wire to Wire, Barely

Joshua Moore closed MPO at -8 (959-rated) for the win, with Noah Smith taking second at -4 (915) and first-time player Derick McCabe rounding out the podium at even par — a 870-rated round that landed 34 points below his 904 rating. Derick pulled level with Joshua through hole 6 before Joshua reclaimed the lead outright through hole 7 and never let go, officially wire-to-wire despite the scare. Noah's round told its own story: a front nine six strokes better than his back, a cold streak snapped after hole 7, then a back-nine charge that vaulted him from third to second, capped by matching Joshua's eagle on the par-5 18th — while Joshua answered a two-over hole 17 with his own eagle finish and a birdie-sealed win. 🪓

Debut Round, Instant Landlord

Alex Stone stormed to a -10 finish in MA1 — a 981-rated, 50-stroke round — while first-time player Rhett Rucker finished second at -4 (915). Rhett actually grabbed the lead through hole 3 and rode a clean, bogey-free front nine, including a five-hole par train from 2 through 6, before Alex seized control for good through hole 8 with an eagle, then extended the gap with a second eagle on hole 11. Alex closed with a spotless back nine, unique birdies on holes 14 and 15, and a jaw-dropping +54-over-rating performance for good measure. Landlord energy on night one — the rest of the field is just paying rent. 🌲

Log Your Throws, Feed the Drama

The night belonged to overperformance on both ends: Alex Stone's 981-rated round sat 54 points above his 927 rating, while Derick McCabe's even-par debut landed 34 points below his 904 rating — the widest swings of the evening. Both divisions saw a run of "sole birdie" holes where one player split clean from the pack — hole 3 and hole 16 for Joshua Moore, hole 6 for Derick McCabe, holes 13 and 17 for Noah Smith, hole 4 for Alex Stone, hole 10 for Rhett Rucker. That level of hole-by-hole granularity only exists because players are logging throws on PDGA Live — keep doing that, because it's the difference between me reporting a final score and me reporting an actual story.

The Pot Fattens, the Chains Wait

No ace fell this week, but the Super Ace Pot kept climbing anyway — a single $2 contribution nudged the split pot from $260.00 to $262.00. Nobody found the chains at the right moment, but the balance itself is now its own slow-burn subplot, growing week over week until somebody finally cashes in. ⛓️

Building the NAU Fund, Plank by Plank

This week's league registrations added $12.50 to the Fuel the NAU Disc Golf Team project, all from the league's standard per-player contribution. The fund now sits at $32.50 raised (3%) toward its $1,000.00 goal, with $967.50 still needed. Thanks to every player whose registration chips in — every Wednesday moves the NAU team fund a little closer to fully funded, one plank at a time. 🪵

One Throne Claimed, One Vacated

In The Ringwright Union, Alex Stone seized Heartwood Gate, climbing from #4 to #1 — a three-spot jump powered by that record-setting 981-rated round. The tag's lore speaks of "veteran gatekeepers" and grain "incapable of further expansion," and now it sits with the newest face in the league — the irony is not lost on this booth. In The Sawtooth Syndicate, #1 holder Stacey Briscoe sat out the event and, per the pool's full-reshuffle rules, was pushed straight to the bottom of the rankings, a new #1 claiming Sawtooth Bastion in her absence. Absence, as always, is its own verdict.

Knot Contest

Alex Stone's meteoric climb to Heartwood Gate's #1 spot and Stacey Briscoe's forced fall to the bottom of Sawtooth Bastion both set up prime storylines for Week 4's Knot Contest, where players can challenge any tag within five numbers of their own, winner take both. Expect the stone lodge to fill with spectators as the crosscut saw is rumored to change hands multiple times in one evening, with a former cellar-dweller attempting the season's first real upset run. Next week returns to the same Fort Tuthill DGC layout — no venue change, just a new voluntary-combat wrinkle on familiar ground.

Register here: /LeagueEvents/Register?leagueEventId=2941

adjusts visor one last time — because nothing screams "high-stakes disc golf" quite like grown adults voluntarily fighting over bag tags named after tree rings.