Black Water Bend

The Crossroads Demands Its Tithe 🐊

adjusts spectral duster Welcome back to the booth, partners—Week 3 of the Black Water Bend, and the Deadlands have decided Dragonfly under cloudy 65°F skies is where the mid-season tithe gets collected. Twelve souls showed up to sign the Pact, the supernatural contract that grants the top half immunity from the Drowning mechanic while leaving the rest to sink. The swamp doesn't negotiate. It just records the score and moves on.

RPA: Lott Locks Down the Ledger 📋

Austin Lott arrived at Dragonfly carrying the Scarlet Covenant like a blood oath on a silver chain, and he played like the contract demanded a signature in ink. His wire-to-wire -8 (1,000-rated, Personal Best) wasn't just a win—it was a statement that the top half of the leaderboard belongs to whoever shows up and throws. Kenneth Oetker made him earn it, though, firing a clean -6 (980-rated) that included a five-way tie for the lead after Hole 1 and a brief takeover after Hole 12 when Lott's drive found the marsh. But the back nine belonged to the Covenant holder—three birdies in the final five holes while Kenneth scrambled to keep pace. The ledger's balanced, and Lott's name is at the top in red ink. 🩸

Bennett's Bogey Blues, Morty's Muse 🎵

Over in RAD, the script flipped faster than a page in a ghost story. Craig Bennett walked in as Week 2's hero with a Personal Best -2 and a 949-rated round in his saddlebag, but Dragonfly had different plans. His +1 finish and 909 rating felt like the swamp reclaiming what it loaned him—three strokes worse than last week, forty rating points gone like morning mist. Meanwhile, Andrew Mortensen found his muse somewhere in the Dragonfly reeds, posting a -4 (960-rated) that soared 70 points above his rating and set a Personal Best. The lead changed hands like a hot potato through the front nine—multiple players trading the top spot before John Sheen grabbed control after Hole 9. But Mortensen's back-nine charge, fueled by the kind of putting that makes ghosts weep, sealed the division win. The swamp giveth, and the swamp taketh away. 🎭

RAH: Where Statistics Go to Die Alone 🪦

Dillon Mueller stepped into RAH as the division's sole survivor, and let me tell you—the Deadlands have a sick sense of humor. His +3 (888-rated) performance was an 8-stroke improvement on the front nine alone, a stretch where he looked like he might actually threaten par. The back nine? The back nine remembered he was alone out there, fighting ghosts and his own disc selection. Still, last week's 13th-place finish and 887 rating looked like a drowning victim; this week's 9th-place and 888 rating is barely treading water, but at least the head's above the brine. The one-man division marches on, because apparently the swamp wants a witness. 🏴

Ratings Explode Like Bayou Dynamite 💥

checks the blast radius Four Personal Bests in one week at Dragonfly tells me either the course played short or the frontier decided to reward ambition. Adam Sojka posted the most dramatic turnaround you'll see all season—a 117-point rating jump from Week 2's 786 to Week 3's 888, climbing from 15th to 9th like a man who made a deal with something in the reeds. Austin Lott cracked 1,000 for the first time, Kenneth Oetker hit 980, and Andrew Mortensen's 960 proved the Deadlands don't just cull—they occasionally bless. Meanwhile, Chris Fox threw the lone birdie on Hole 12, which played +1.1 average for the field—the kind of statistical outlier that makes course designers grin and players curse the day they picked up a disc. The dynamite's still smoking. 🔥

The Pot Grows Like Kudzu in July 🌿

The Super Ace Pot climbed to $3,154.00 this week, with 11 contributors adding $22.00 to the seasonal pile. No aces, no payouts, just the slow, suffocating growth of a pot that's becoming the swamp's most valuable treasure. The front door's unlocked, the chains are waiting—someone just has to thread the needle from the tee pad. Until then, the kudzu keeps climbing. 🪴

Eric's 8-Skin Sunrise, Craig's 8-Skin Sunset 🌅

Two cards, two heroes, one swamp that pays out when you show up. Eric Pearson cashed in on the 7:00 AM card, scooping 8 skins for $30.00 including an 8-skin carryover on Hole 8 that must have felt like finding gold in a ghost town. Then Craig Bennett, despite his RAD struggles, matched the haul on the 4:00 PM card with 8 skins worth $16.00—proof that even when the round score doesn't cooperate, the skin game remembers your name. Total exchange: $103.50 across 9 players on 2 cards, because the Deadlands economy runs on birdies and bad decisions. Learn the playbook. 🪙

Robbins Learns Absence Has Consequences 📜

adjusts noose The Scarlet Covenant (#1 tag) stayed right where it belongs—around Austin Lott's neck after his RPA victory. The Covenant, that shimmering blood-red contract binding all survivors to the frontier's law of culling and remembrance, demands presence. Not potential. Not excuses. Presence. And Lott brought it. Over in Pool B, Isaac Robbins learned the hard way that sitting out in AllIn mode means getting buried at the bottom of the rankings like a drifter who missed the stagecoach. The Thorn Covenant he once held? Gone. Reassigned. The frontier doesn't wait for anyone. 🏴

The Pact is Sealed, But the Swamp Hungers 🐍

The top half of the leaderboard now carries immunity from the Drowning mechanic—a mid-season ritual that separates the remembered from the forgotten. But the swamp doesn't stop feeding just because twelve souls signed a contract. Six weeks remain until the Final Culling, and the Deadlands are patient. Next week, we continue "The Pact is Sealed," and the question isn't who's safe—it's who's desperate enough to earn it. The crossroads waits. Bring your scorecard. 📜