Round 10: Dahl's 69, Twin Eagles on 9, and a −19 Romp

After a Tuesday washout and a holiday off-week, the league finally got back on grass Thursday — three full weeks since anybody put a peg in the ground. Round 10 went off on the Dutch 27 White/Blue combo (128 slope, 71.0 rating, 6,432 yards, par 70), and the format was 1 Gross 1 Net: every hole, your foursome counts its best gross ball and its best net ball. One horse, one bandit, everybody rows. Twenty-three players teed it up, and the rust was apparently optional.

🏆 The Winning Team: −19 and a Perfect Odd Couple

Peter Dahl, Tate Motschenbacher, and Matt Blanch (with a blind draw riding along) torched the field at −19, four clear of second. And here's the beauty of this format in one sentence: the team's two real scorecards that mattered most were Dahl's 69 and Blanch's 100. A 1-under and a triple-digit round, worth the exact same ten team points apiece. Dahl supplied the gross ball nearly every hole, Blanch's 25 strokes turned bogeys into net birdies, and Tate stitched the gaps with an eagle of his own. That's 1 Gross 1 Net working exactly as designed — nobody hides, everybody counts.

🦅 Twin Eagles — Same Hole, Same Team

The 9th — a par 5 — gave up two eagles Thursday, and both of them to the winning team. Peter Dahl got there and holed out for 3, and Tate Motschenbacher did the very same thing. Two 3s on the same par 5 from two guys on the same cart path to first place. The other 21 players are advised to check what those two were drinking at the turn.

📈 The Redemption Arc: Dead Last to 1-Under

Let the record show: on quota night three weeks ago, Peter Dahl finished dead last at −11. His response? A 69 (−1) — low gross of the night by four — built on an eagle, four birdies, and nine pars. Apparently three weeks is exactly the right amount of time to stew on it. From the bottom of the quota sheet to the top of the leaderboard in one round; that's the fastest round trip of the season.

🐦 The Birdie Board

Dahl's four birdies shared top billing with Michael Martin, who stuffed four of his own into a 78 (net 69) — three of them in a four-hole stretch around the turn. Justin Heitkamp went for three birdies on a tidy 73, second-low gross of the night. The par 3s coughed up eight deuces across the field — more on that below.

👋 Debut Watch: Eric Pion

First-timer Eric Pion showed up, shot a clean 80 (net 72) with a birdie on 7, and helped drag his squad — Eric Davidge, Michael Martin, and himself — to second place at −15. Eight team points on debut. Welcome aboard; the bar tab initiation is traditional and non-negotiable. (Davidge, meanwhile, did double duty — a real 83 for the runners-up and blind-draw duty for the winners. Busy night for a man who played one round.)

Third place at −11 went to the Bender family outfit — Jim and Scott Bender with Jerad Clough along for the ride. Jim's 79 with birdies on 9 and 10 did the heavy lifting.

🔥 The Hall of Pain

Three weeks off shows up somewhere, and Thursday it showed up in the doubles column:

Jason Jackovich — 98, featuring nine doubles and exactly one par. One! And yet — off a 22, that's a net 76, and his team finished fourth. The most useful 98 in league history.
Nick Anderson — 96, five holes at triple-or-worse… and a deuce on the par-3 15th. Golf makes no sense and never has.
Sam Geraets — 92, keeping the family tradition of donating to the field alive while Charlie took the week off.
Your author — 92, with three triples-plus and five doubles. The third-place finish was entirely the Benders' doing and I will not be pretending otherwise.

🎯 The Hole-in-One Pot

The White/Blue serves up six par 3s — six swings at the money — and the field managed eight birdie deuces on them without finding the bottom of the cup once. Close only counts in horseshoes. The pot rolls on to $2,758. Members get the full ride — somebody go get it.

🤝 Season Team Points: Thomes Still on Top

Ten weeks in (best 8 count), the board is tightening:

Dave Thomes — 54
Mark Pietig — 53
Michael Martin — 48
Luke Ostrowski — 47
Charlie Geraets — 46

Thomes banked four more points on an 87 and keeps the crown for another week — but Pietig is one back, and Michael Martin has piled up 48 points in just six rounds played. If Martin keeps showing up, the math gets scary. Charlie Geraets sat this one out and paid for it in position.

⛳ Next Up

Round 11 goes Thursday, July 16 on The Lehman. Back to the regular rhythm — no rainouts, no off-weeks, no excuses. See you at the first tee.