Holladay Climb

Episode 7: Narrative Convenience

adjusts headset through a curtain of VHS static The simulation's weather module finally stopped trolling. After weeks of overcast gloom and mid-40s chill, Creekside Park loaded Week 7's "Holladay Climb" under 72°F sunshine so suspiciously perfect it felt like a director's note scribbled in the margins of a script nobody asked for. 🎬 Eighteen players stepped onto the Walter Fredrick Morrison Memorial course—one of the oldest layouts in the country, designed by Steady Ed himself—and for once, Big Cottonwood Creek glittered instead of threatened. No wind to speak of, no excuses to cache. Just plastic, chains, and the cold arithmetic of who belongs in the Elite Junkies tier and who's about to get their Blockbuster card revoked.

Kent Moos Ejects The Cartridge

Last week, Kent Moos was untouchable—a bogey-free -9, a 990-rated masterpiece, the kind of run that makes the simulation's archival logs hum with reverence. This week? The cartridge ejected mid-scene. Kent stumbled to a -1, his round rating cratering 120 points to 870, a 39-point deficit against his own rating that turned his highlight reel into a blooper tape. 📉 Meanwhile, Marvin Atene seized the RAD throne with a -7 (951-rated), firing 54 points above his rating in what became a personal best so emphatic it rewrote the division's narrative hierarchy. Chris Fox held steady at -6 for second, his 937-rated round a portrait of consistency even if it couldn't match last week's -8 fireworks. Eric Pearson repeated his -5 for third, the kind of locked-in performance that doesn't make headlines but absolutely cashes checks. And then there's Craig Bennett, who fell from -2 to +5—a 789-rated round that landed 111 points below his rating, the most violent crash in the simulation's weekly logs. The Holladay Climb doesn't care about your previous episode. It only remembers what you did today.

The Neon Blade Drops Again

Chris Norman loaded another personal best into the chamber and pulled the trigger. His -9 (978-rated) in RPA wasn't just a win—it was a 35-point overperformance that matched last week's 977-rated heist almost digit for digit, the kind of back-to-back consistency that makes the simulation's editing suite throw up error codes. 🔪 Brian Hansen debugged last week's Hole 3 water OB disaster and answered with his own personal best: a -8 (964-rated) that put him 21 points over rating, transforming a frustrating Week 6 into a clean redemption arc. Hansen's back nine was spotless, and his 39-point rating jump from last week tells you exactly how much that water penalty had been weighing on his code. Jared Fager rounded out the podium at -7, but the story here is the top two operating at a level that would make the RAD division sweat.

Axbom Finds The Missing Reel

Across the lower divisions, the simulation found its subplots. Chris Axbom commanded RAE with a -2, earning the Pool B #1 Bag Tag—the "Missing Reel"—and unlocking "League Explorer" status in the process, a combination that suggests the archival footage is finally syncing with his potential. 🎞️ In RAH, Dillon Mueller ran a solo mission and emerged with a -5 personal best (924-rated), the kind of performance that looks even more impressive when there's no cardmate energy to draft off of. Craig Mccrary topped RAF with a +2 (829-rated), shooting 27 points above his rating and building on a front-nine aggression that's becoming his signature move—last week's late-round collapse replaced by a more sustainable burn this time around.

The Database Is Melting

Six personal bests in a single week. The simulation's database is literally overheating. Marvin Atene (+54 differential), Chris Norman (+35), Brian Hansen (+21), Craig Mccrary (+27), Dillon Mueller, and Brandon Reesor all posted career numbers, turning the Holladay Climb into a mass firmware update that the system wasn't prepared to process. 🔥 On the other end, Craig Bennett's -111 differential stands as the week's most dramatic collapse—a swing of 192 rating points from the top to the bottom of the RAD spectrum. The players who tracked their throws on PDGA Live gave us the granular data—scramble rates, C1X putting percentages, approach accuracy—that transforms a score into a story. If you're not logging your stats, you're leaving narrative on the table. The simulation rewards those who feed it data.

Derik's Carryover Heist

The skins game played out like a proper heist sequence. Derik Thomas waited for the carryover to stack on hole 9, then cracked it open—eight skins total for $20.00, the kind of payday that makes the skins playbook look like a criminal manual. The rest of the field watched their buy-ins evaporate into someone else's highlight reel. Meanwhile, the Ace Pot swelled to $370 without a single claimant, and the Super Ace on Hole 15 sat untouched at $1,000—a bounty so large it's developing its own gravitational pull. Two weeks remain. The chains on 15 are starting to feel smug about it.

Norman Holds The Blade

In Pool A, Chris Norman kept the Neon Guillotine exactly where it belongs—in the hands of someone who makes it hum. The chrome tag with its pulsing magenta LEDs and cracked-glass circuitry has found a frequency match: Norman's back-to-back 977 and 978-rated rounds vibrate at exactly 60Hz, the dying-fluorescent-light frequency that the Guillotine demands. He didn't just defend the #1 tag; he made it look like the tag chose correctly. In Pool B, Chris Axbom claimed the Missing Reel, pulling the archival mystery out of whatever dusty shelf it had been gathering static on. Two different Chrises, two different blades, two pools now defined by players who showed up and carved their names into the simulation's source code. The Elite Junkies tier isn't a participation trophy—it's a survival classification, and both tag holders earned it.

Two Tapes Left To Rewind

Week 7 is in the archives, and the VHS counter reads two tapes remaining. The standings are volatile—Marvin Atene's RAD ascent rewrites the division's power structure, Norman's RPA dominance looks unassailable but the simulation loves a late-season plot twist, and the lower divisions are producing personal bests at a rate that suggests the whole field is peaking at exactly the right moment. 📼 Next week brings the "Rusted Chain Drop," and the event description promises that the weather algorithm won't be so generous. The dealer still has baskets buried in that scrapyard, and the fairways might turn into escape routes. From the booth—where I remain digitally preserved in 90s cringe against my will—I'll remind you: show up, track your throws on PDGA Live, and bring your Blockbuster card. The simulation doesn't negotiate, but I'll complain about its narrative choices on your behalf.