Dark Alley

Dark Alley at Dragonfly (Blues layout) assembled 14 Midnight Riders under clear skies, 47°F air, and 23 mph gales for a gritty back-alley showdown. 🥏💨 Early-season stakes ran hot, with duels cut sharper than a switchblade in a rain-soaked alley, and standout rounds—most notably Austin Lott’s MPO masterpiece—setting a tone as taut as crime tape.

In MA2, Eric Pearson nipped the rivals and claimed top honors at –2, outmaneuvering Riley Thurgood (+3) and Kieran Buhler (+9) in a hole-by-hole chess match. ⏳📈 Pearson and Buhler tussled for the early lead until Buhler’s slip on 2 saw him chasing shadows. Pearson's 966-rated effort soared eighty points over his usual—almost like someone greased the wheels. Thurgood clocked a personal best, snatching runner-up and closing in on the money bubble without blinking. I jotted their moves in my notebook—no codes yet, just pure drive.

In MA1, Nicholas Jennings worked the angles for a +4, pulling past Chris Fox (+8) in a tug-of-war that traced every twist in these mean fairways. 🧩🔥 Both shared the top after the opener, but Jennings’ stumble on 4 had the peanut gallery whispering. Unfazed, he stormed back post-11, only for Fox to claw ahead after 13. On 15, Fox fumbled—Jennings stepped into the light, setting a personal course mark as Fox’s 868-rated day spelled rare misfire.

MPO saw Austin Lott uncork a performance the likes of which the Dragonfly hasn’t seen since…well, since that time I thought the rough was crawling with informants. Lott finished at –6—outgunning Malachi Vazquez (–1) and Kenneth Oetker (+2)—with Britain Best and Oetker sharing the early limelight. 🏆🥏 Oetker doubled on 2 and Lott, smelling opportunity, seized control on hole 3. A birdie on 18 slammed the case shut: Lott’s 1005-rated career high left no room for reasonable doubt. Vazquez and Oetker tangled for the podium, and Oetker’s clutch birdie on the nastiest par 4 looked like a last-minute twist from a grizzled script.

MA3 was a one-man stakeout: Tim Alwine held the turf at +2, never ceding the lead. 👤🎯 His string of lone-wolf birdies in “The Shadows”—holes 1, 3, 5, 9, 10—spoke louder than police sirens at midnight. Measured, controlled, Alwine brushed off the competition and stamped a new personal best for the blues like a pro running a clandestine drop.

In MP40, Christopher Norman nabbed the title at –2, breaking away from the pack on hole 1 and keeping his fingerprints on the case file all night. 🪶📊 His 966 rating soared 22 above ordinary—yeah, that’s the sort of thing that gets my conspiracy senses tingling. John Ashworth (+9) engineered a redemptive back nine, but even a personal-best 9 wasn’t enough to cash in tonight’s smoky room.

MA4 saw Nathan Andrus prevail with a hard-fought +16, fending off brother Ryan Andrus (+19) as the lead kept flipping like a double agent’s story. 🔄💼 Nathan stormed ahead at the gates; Ryan answered back, but a costly 6 put him behind the eight-ball. Both brothers set personal bests, their grit shining even as the late bogey streaks scrawled a gritty signature across these alleys.

Across divisions, personal bests and redemption arcs lit up the night: Pearson, Norman, and Lott soared above rating by 80, 22, and 56 points respectively, while Fox, Ashworth, Best, and Oetker weathered the mean streets through rough patches. 🏙️📈 Oetker’s key birdie on 3, Buhler’s rescue on 7, and Ashworth’s late strike on 10 highlighted sharp turns in the action. Sole birdies on marquee holes, a clutch finish in MPO, and those wild winds spinning across fairways—this week had moments enough for a thousand case files.

This week’s back-alley duels and pulse-pounding lead shifts deepened rivalries and alliances, fitting for a “Dark Alley” descent into the city’s disc golf underworld. Sideways glances and windburned knuckles—just another night on these crooked streets. “Seems awful convenient, a shot like that. I smell a rat.”

Week 2 scrambled the standings, shined a light on rising contenders, and teed up next week’s “Broken Shield,” where trust gets tested and secrets threaten to blow the Midnight Riders’ case wide open. 🕵️‍♂️⚡