Week 19 Recap

Hunt ran Kardas 7.5–2.5 (only 2.5 pts) while Sewell picked up 4.5 in a tight loss to Rains. Sewell passes Kardas and takes seed 2. In the bracket, that means Sewell now draws the weaker play-in winner in R1; Kardas drops to seed 3 and faces Joe Olson in the Round of 16.

A 7-pt win over Orlando (41g, net 37) vaulted Dean past Maxwell, Candelaria, and Shields in one night. Dean now enters the bracket as the 8-seed and draws Dennis Candelaria in R1 — a matchup where Andy holds both the handicap edge and the better pts/round (5.37 vs 4.65).

Shields had 74.5 going in and didn't play. Meanwhile Candelaria (7 pts), Harvey (5.5), and Maxwell (4.5) all scored. Shields dropped three seeds and now draws Thomas Jaramillo (5-seed) in R1 — one of the tougher opening matchups in the bracket.

Jaramillo went 7–3 over Pehr and passed Rael for seed 5. The ripple: Jaramillo now faces Shields (12) instead of Harvey (11) in R1; Rael drops to seed 6 and faces Harvey instead of Shields. A one-match difference, but the handicap dynamics are different in each.

Hunt had 38 gross (hcp 2, net 35) — cleanest round of the night by a mile. Kardas shot 47 (hcp 6, net 41). That's a 6-stroke net gap, and Jeff won the hole-by-hole battle to match. The timing couldn't have been worse for Kardas: he was one of the title chasers heading into the night and walked away with 2.5. Hunt is now 5.79 pts/round on the season, the best rate in the league among players with 10+ rounds.

Dean shot 41 gross (hcp 4, net 37). Orlando shot 46 (hcp 1, net 45). A bad night for the points leader — Orlando is usually around 37–39 gross, so a 46 was out of character. Andy was sharp and dominated from start to finish. Orlando still holds the lead at 98.5, but the margin over Sewell is now just 0.5 points heading into the final week.

Rains and Todd Sewell both netted 40 on the night — Sewell shot 44 (hcp 4) and Rains shot 54 (hcp 14). With identical net totals, the low-net bonus split 0.5 each. But on a hole-by-hole basis, Jimmie won five holes to Todd's four. The handicap strokes spread out just right across the front and back, and Jimmie edged it 5.5–4.5. A 54 that wins. Only in handicap golf.

Jaramillo over Pehr, Candelaria over Rael, and Olson over Baird — all by the same 7–3 margin. Thomas Jaramillo (48g/37n, hcp 11) dominated Tom Pehr (46g/42n, hcp 4) despite shooting 2 more gross. Dennis Candelaria (45g/36n) beat Paul Rael (48g/40n) cleanly. And Joe Olson (49g/36n, hcp 13) ran Doug Baird (55g/41n) without much drama. A decisive evening for the underdogs and higher-handicap players.

Through 19 weeks, every other pairing among the top 10 has been played at least once — except these two. They've never faced each other in a regular-season match. Pehr is 4th overall; Orlando leads. It's the one unplayed marquee matchup of the season, and the schedule hasn't made it happen yet. If they meet in the final week or playoffs, it'll be the first time.

Orlando leads by 4.5 over Todd and 5.5 over Kardas. Ten points on the table next Tuesday. All three are live. Tom Pehr and Thomas Jaramillo are 4th and 5th and both playing well — they're 8.5 and 10 back of the lead. Depending on who shows up and who draws who, next Tuesday could flip the table completely or lock in the regular-season champion. See you then.

Wks 11–19 only. Jeff Hunt (6.00) leads the league in pts/round among players with 5+ second-half starts.

— Jason