Spirit Veins

Fifteen Souls, One Bad Idea 😑

sighs in haunted frontier Welcome back to the booth, where the "Spirits Cross Over" arc means the safe lines have vanished and Dragonfly's rough is hungrier than a swamp gator at high noon. Fifteen souls rolled up to the Black Bayou under clear 68°F skies—because apparently the Deadlands decided to give us pleasant weather before the culling. The Chaintrix Invitational layout played par 56, and with the wind averaging a merciful 7.7 mph, there were no excuses left. Just scores. And one of them was historic.

Austin's -12 Haunts the Leaderboard 😑

Let's start with the obvious: Austin Lott posted a -12. That's not a score—that's a course record, a 1040-rated masterpiece, and a polite way of telling Dragonfly who owns the place. He shot 71 points above his rating, which is the kind of statistical outlier that makes you wonder if he made a deal with the spirits or just decided the rough wasn't worth his attention. Clayton Rackham and Chris Fox tied for second at -6 with matching 979-rated rounds—solid scores that would've won most weeks, but this week they got to watch Lott lap them from the front of the card. Eric Pearson crept into fourth at -5 with a 969, while last week's RPA winner Dannion Nelson settled for fifth at -4. The lead changed hands exactly once: when Lott stepped onto the first tee and never looked back.

RAD's Carousel of Chaos 😑

Over in RAD, the standings looked like someone shuffled a deck and threw it at the wall. Parker Opfar and Andrew Mortensen tied at +4 for the division win—which, in a field where the top RPA card was chasing double digits under par, is less "victory" and more "survival with a pulse." Jonathan Lang and Craig Bennett both cratered from last week's -3 personal bests to +5 and +6 respectively, a combined 148-point rating swing that suggests the spirits collect their debts with interest. The lead bounced around like a drunk tumbleweed—Opfar would grab it, Mortensen would snatch it back, rinse and repeat until the dust settled on a tie that nobody felt great about.

The Lower Pools' Quiet Desperation 😑

Down in the smaller brackets, Nicholas Stosiek ran a wire-to-wire special in RAF, claiming the Noose Elegy Pool B #1 without breaking a sweat. Dillon Mueller posted a clean -8 in RAH, which in a two-player division is less "clutch performance" and more "showed up and threw better than the other guy." Still, credit where it's due—Mueller's -8 on this layout would've been competitive in RPA, which tells you either he's sandbagging or the division assignments are as cursed as everything else in this swamp.

Harrison's $3,532 Heartbreak 😑

Now for the moment that made even my digital gills ache. Kevin Harrison parked Hole 10 with a clean ace—chains, crowd, the whole dramatic shebang. The problem? He didn't buy into the Super Ace Pot. So instead of pocketing $3,532, he gets a memory and a pat on the back. That's the Deadlands for you: read the fine print or the fine print reads you. Meanwhile, Clayton Rackham salvaged an eagle somewhere in the chaos, and Austin Lott's -12 came with zero bogeys—a bogey-free course record that belongs in the Bayou's history books. The rating deltas across the board were absurd: Lott at +104, Clayton at +96, Chris Fox at +60, while Craig Bennett cratered -79 and Jonathan Lang dropped -69. The spirits giveth, and the spirits taketh away.

Don't Forget to Pay the Ferryman 😑

Let's talk about that Super Ace Pot, because $3,532 is the kind of number that makes you check your bank account twice. Harrison's ace was a thing of beauty—clean release, perfect line, chains accept—but the rules are the rules, and the pot rolls over to Week 7. The regular Ace Pot sits at $89, a reminder that someone's going to get lucky eventually. Probably someone who remembered to buy in. The lesson, as always: pay the ferryman before you cross the water.

Lott Skins the Competition Alive 😑

The skins game was less competition and more redistribution of wealth. Austin Lott walked away with 12 skins worth $45, because apparently -12 wasn't enough—he needed the cash too. Chris Fox picked up 2 skins for $7.50, Eric Pearson grabbed 2 for $7.50, and the rest of the card got to watch the Lott Show from the cheap seats. If you want to learn more about the skins playbook, now's the time—because next week's field is going to be hunting.

Covenant Changes Hands at High Noon 😑

The bag tag board got the AllIn treatment, and the Scarlet Covenant—the spectral blood-oath that binds all survivors to the Deadlands' law of cull and remember—now sits at #1 in Pool A, held by the same Austin Lott who just embarrassed the course. The Covenant manifests as faint red lines connecting competitors during pivotal moments, and this week those lines all led to Lott. Over in Pool B, Nicholas Stosiek retained the Noose Elegy #1, the spectral hymn of those who escaped the gallows. The full reshuffle means anyone who sat out this week got buried at the bottom of the standings—absence is demotion in the Deadlands, and the tag board doesn't care about your excuses.

The Tide Is Rising, Partner 😑

So Week 6 closes with a course record, a $3,532 ghost ace, and a tag reshuffle that left the Covenant at the top of the Bayou hierarchy. But the spirits aren't done with us yet. Next week brings "The Hungry Water"—scores reset to a rising tide baseline, culling anyone who can't adapt to the pressure. The safe lines are gone, the rough is hungry, and the water's coming. Tips digital hat. Try not to drown, partner.