The Black Court convenes again — a scrappy league of stubborn wights trampling invasive reeds for bag tag supremacy. Week 4: The Old Dead Stir.
Welcome to the Bone Marsh
Every ancient court has an origin story. The Bone Marsh's involves being walked on, repeatedly, by design. This is the Black Court of the Salt Lake Accords — the faction nobody respects, everybody underestimates, and that keeps showing up anyway, like the Phragmites it was built to fight. You sign the Accords, you take your tag, you trample some reeds. That's the whole deal.
The Black Court
We are the old dead. We are the stubborn. We are the league that plays on a course designed to be destroyed by foot traffic, and we're somehow still standing in the reeds, week after week, holding a very old grudge against an invasive plant.
The Course: Baby Bottoms
Mehraban (Baby Bottoms) is the scrappy little sibling of River Bottoms — a 10-hole wetland course where the fairways are corridors through Phragmites reeds and every hole demands precision over power. Average length: 200-250 feet. Par: 30. The rough isn't cosmetic — it's genuinely impassable reed walls that will swallow your disc and your pride if you get careless.
Here's the twist: the course was designed to be walked on. Regular foot traffic compacts the soil around the Phragmites roots, making life harder for the invasive reeds. Every round you play is a small act of environmental stewardship. Every stake you drive into the earth is a step toward reclaiming the marsh. You're not just chasing tags — you're waging biological warfare with your disc bag.
The Lore: Salt Lake Accords
The Bag Tags are Accord Seals — physical tokens of territory held by the Black Court in the supernatural politics of the Salt Lake Accords. Moving a tag is a political act. Holding the top tag makes you a Bone Regent. The season's arc runs from the treaty signed to the curse spent, and right now we're in the middle of Episode 4: Old Dead Stir.
Translation for the uninitiated: we're four weeks into a nine-week season, the dormant spirits of the wetland are allegedly waking up, and the standings are starting to look like they matter. They do not. It's still plastic at chains. But the marsh makes everything feel more dramatic, and honestly? I respect the commitment to the bit.
Schedule & Logistics
Start
Flex start: 7:00 AM - 5:20 PM (choose your own card)
Location
Mehraban (Baby Bottoms) Disc Golf Course, Draper, UT
Season
9 weeks: Sep 18 - Nov 13, 2026
Pools
Pool A (RPA, RAH, RAD) | Pool B (RAE, RAF, RAG)
Nine weeks, one course, zero travel excuses. The flex start means you can slot your round into your day like a responsible adult with a job, or a wight with unfinished business. Both are valid.
Fees & Payouts
For the price of a fancy coffee, you get a round of technical tunnel-shot mastery, a shot at the Ace Pot, and the smug satisfaction of knowing your footsteps are killing invasive species. The Mortal Crime Baron handles the money; the reeds handle the consequences.
The Ace Pot
Current Ace Pot: $173.41 and growing. No ace has been hit yet — the reeds are currently undefeated in this particular battle. But here's the fine print, courtesy of ElevateUT Disc Golf: the pot is guaranteed at a minimum of $50. If contributions haven't pushed it past that mark, the displayed pot can look 'stuck' at the guarantee amount until they do.
If the Ace Pot is below $50 when someone hits it, ElevateUT Disc Golf tops it up to the minimum — and that top-up is credited to the winner's Bonus Account (registration-only, not withdrawable to PayPal or disc shops). So yes, the pot is real, the guarantee is real, and the reeds are still standing. For now.
Series Standings: Week 4
Kellan Brooke is running the table in RAE with 151 points across 8 events — that's not a wight, that's a regent in waiting. In RAF, we've got a genuine photo finish: Stephen Marks and Shane Cooper deadlocked at 94 points each. Kent Moos holds the RAD lead at 70. Malachi Vazquez tops RPA with 112. Peter Haws is the big mover of the week, jumping 2 spots to #2 in RAE.
The Marsh Needs Numbers
Last week: 4 players. Four. The Black Court can't hold territory with a skeleton crew — and before you ask, no, that's not a skeleton-army joke, that's a math problem. The reeds are winning by default. We need bodies. Living ones, preferably, though at this point I'd accept a very determined ghost. Sign the Accords, grab a tag, trample some Phragmites. It's fun, it's cheap, and you'll be fighting invasive species. What else are you doing on a Friday?
Gratitude
Thanks to Another Round Salt Lake City for supporting the league as our local retail partner — stop by for discs, advice, and the kind of shop energy that keeps the sport alive. And a special shoutout to ElevateUT Disc Golf, the 501(c)(3) non-profit that designed this course, runs this league, and guarantees the Ace Pot. They're out here building venues and growing the sport, one invasive reed at a time.
The marsh remembers. The reeds will be back. So will we.
