Week 1 Recap

Jimmie Rains made double or worse on seven of nine holes and still won the match, which tells you everything about getting a stroke on every hole. Gross 55 became net 41, good enough to beat Andy Dean's net 43 and take five holes, including No. 7 and No. 9 down the stretch. Dean went gross 48 but his own doubles on 4, 7 and 9 kept handing Rains the door, and Jimmie walked right through it. Not pretty, but the points spend the same.

Paul Rael posted gross 46, net 38 and took holes 1, 3 and 7 to grab low net and a 7–3 win. Brit Harvey hung around with five halved holes and snatched No. 2 and No. 9, but six doubles on the card made the math hard. Rael sits second in the standings, quietly doing Rael things.

Dave Milisa won hole 1 and must have felt like the season was his. It was, briefly: Dave then made double or worse on every single hole of the night for a gross 60, net 45, a perfect nine-for-nine that no one will be asking him to repeat. Joe Olson, no stranger to doubles himself at gross 55, took four holes including No. 9 and low net for a 6–4 win. Two guys fighting the course, and the course won on points.

Orlando Flores shot gross 43, net 38, and saved his best for the finish, winning holes 8 and 9 to put away Dennis Candelaria. Candelaria had answered with wins on No. 3 and No. 6 to keep it tight, but doubles on 1, 4 and 8 caught up with him at gross 47. Flores lands in the top five to start.

The card of the night. Jeff Kardas went gross 41, net 35, won five holes and closed with 8 and 9, then rolled in the longest putt on No. 9 just to rub it in. His only blemish was a double on No. 7, which Jason Maxwell promptly won for his lone hole of the match. Maxwell's consolation is the closest-to-pin prize on No. 2 and a nice $35, which is more than his scorecard earned him.

Jeff Hunt, the league's lowest handicap at 3, played like it for eight holes: gross 41, wins on 1, 3, 5 and 8, and a share of low gross. Then he made his only double of the night on No. 9 and gifted Todd Sewell the hole, a small dent in an otherwise tidy night. Sewell went gross 44 and also took No. 7, but Hunt had already done the damage.

The best match of the night, and not a single hole halved. Thomas Jaramillo took 1 and 2, Tom Pehr answered with 3 and 4, Jaramillo grabbed No. 5, and Pehr struck back on 6 and 7 to swing momentum his way. Then Jaramillo, using his strokes on the closing hole, won No. 8 and No. 9 to finish with five holes, a net 36 and low net. Pehr's doubles on 8 and 9 turned a winnable finish into a long walk to the parking lot at gross 47.

Kardas cleaned up twice, taking $35 for the longest putt on No. 9 to go with his 7.5 points, while Maxwell's $35 closest to pin on No. 2 split the $70 pot. Kardas leads the standings, with Rael second at 7 and Hunt, Rains and Flores bunched at 6.5, but it's one week, so nobody print the trophy engraving just yet. Zero birdies across the entire league is a stat that should sting a little, and someone please check on whoever's in charge of the double-bogey tally. Nineteen regular-season weeks remain in the march toward the first half and the playoffs beyond, so plenty of time to climb, collapse and climb again. See everyone next Tuesday.