The Stencil Reveals A Sword 😑

Twelve players, calm air, and a Gold layout waiting to draw blood — welcome to Week 3 of Coin and Blade, where the scorecards now carry a stencil of a sword cutting through a red ribbon, which is a lot of iconography for a Friday. The Dye Vigil chapter closes and "Blade Drawn" opens, and the first thing the blade cut was the presumption that anyone had this course figured out.

The 985 Is A Warning Shot 😤

Tongia Vakaafi never gave the lead back in RAH Blue, closing at -7 with a 985-rated round — 36 points above his 949 rating and the event's round of the day. He and Thomas Sautel both went bogey-free on a Gold layout that punishes ambition, Sautel finishing -4 with a clean front and a six-hole par train through 10–15. Chris Fox opened with a front nine five strokes better than his back, then finished +3 on an 866-rated round, 59 points under his rating and a 69-point drop from last week's 935. The stencil may say sword; Fox's back nine said butter knife.

A Lead Card Carousel In RPA Gold 🎠

Kenneth Oetker led through hole 12 in RPA Gold and then watched the wheels come off — bogeys on 11 and 13 dropped him out of a share of the lead twice, and he faded to fifth on a 937-rated round, 23 points below his 960 rating. Eric Pearson took it from there, holding the lead through 13 and closing at -5 with a 961, forty points above his own number. Fernando Cortez shot four strokes better on the back than the front to climb from fourth to second at -4, capping it with the field's only birdie on the 266-foot 15th. Aaron Prestgard rode a six-hole par train through 6–11 and stole the lone birdie on hole 3, but -2 left him sixth.

A Final Hole Heist In RAD White 🕵️

Bernard Dieker led through hole 17, then bogeyed 18, and Adam Gibbons took the division at -2 on a round that was a personal best for the layout and 38 points above his 888 rating. Dieker's E dropped him to eighth, the kind of late collapse that makes a narrator check the math twice. Zack White answered a rough 15 with two under across the next three holes, but +3 and an 866-rated round sat 48 points below his rating.

A Knight's Defense In RAE Red ⚔️

Kieran Buhler gave the lead away on hole 9, took it back through 14, and sealed it at +2 when Alex Collings went over par on 14 and never recovered. Buhler's win was a new personal best for the layout and a successful defense of the #1 tag, which is the kind of line that writes itself onto a stencil. Collings' front nine was five strokes better than his back, which is a lovely way to describe a division slipping away.

The Pot Grows Ever Deeper 💰

The Super Ace pot swelled to $1,948 after 11 contributors added $22, and nobody hit one, which means the suspense carries into next week fully intact. The league also raised $6.00 for the 2 New Drop Zones project, and that fund is now fully funded at $1,229.15 of its $240.00 goal — goal reached, drop zones incoming.

Hollow Flight Holds The Line 🏷️

The Dripping Coin pool runs AllIn, meaning every tag reshuffles after every event, and Kieran Buhler is the rare case of a #1 holder who both played and defended, keeping Hollow Flight exactly where it was. For everyone else, the shuffle is the whole point: play well or get buried, show up or get buried anyway.

The Faithful And The Fallen 🌫️

Next Friday it's Baskets Moved at Art Dye, and the pins are relocating into tall grass and punishing rough, which means the coin stops being a metaphor and becomes a search-and-rescue operation. Buhler's layout personal best and Pearson's 40-point heater are the trajectories to watch; Dieker's bogey on 18 is the cautionary tale. The Faithful will struggle to adjust and the Fallen will accept their fate, and scores are expected to balloon accordingly. Registration is open at the league page.

So next week the league hides the baskets and calls it a theme, which is either a spiritual test or someone just didn't want to mow.