Posted by Ryan
1. OK, someone’s going home today. So there’s only one team that can’t go home today, and it’s Rob and Charlotte. Odds are good we’re going to get our first elimination at the end of this episode. I’m really surprised we’ve come this far without someone getting booted. I’m not sure if this is indicative of the quality of the teams or just the randomness of the game.
2. Andy and Parker drop some knowledge. Facing a trivia challenge on the beach at Treasure Island in Tampa, Andy and Parker display some memory skills I wouldn’t have suspected they had. They remember two key details from the game so far: The name of the fort in St. Augustine in the first episode (Castillo de San Marcos) and the names of the courses that inspired the holes they played at Golden Ocala (Augusta, St. Andrews and Royal Troon). Andy and Parker are the first to snag both antique hickory-shafted clubs and hit the road to Belleair Country Club in Clearwater.
3. Don’t make me come back there! This episode featured more backseat driving than we’ve seen in the series so far. Jay was getting all over Peach for not getting into the right lane. “C’mon, Peach! You’re blowing it!!” And I thought Andy and Parker were going to step out of the car and throw down right in traffic after they went from first place to last place just driving. Andy says, “Don’t worry about the driving part. We can’t control this driving part. All we can control is the golf part.” He’s right. The most dramatic shifts in the game seem to have come on the road, and there’s not much teams can do about it. Unless you screw up your directions, it’s all about the luck of the traffic.
4. Raul’s got good wood. Nice long putt holed by Raul on the road challenge using the creaky old hickory putter, and another nice one sunk at Sara Bay in the clubhouse challenge. The wood is not so kind to Rob, though. He struggles with the putts, and he and Charlotte are the last two teams to hit the road to Sara Bay Country Club in Sarasota.
5. In China, that’s considered a delicacy. Parker claims that he is so hungry he would eat his hand if he could “regurgitate it and use it again.” Well played, sir.
6. Would Parker eat his superleg? So we have another superleg, and the team that comes in first in the Sara Bay clubhouse challenge cruises in the Passing Lane and doesn’t have to participate in any of next week’s challenges, and therefore, they’re immune from elimination. Rob and Charlotte, arriving last to Sara Bay, can’t compete for immunity and they’ll be given a time penalty in next week’s show. Sucks to be them … sort of. They’re the only team without a strike, and it looks like they picked another good time to be bad.
7. Finally, a little match play. Half the season is over, and we’re getting our first taste of match play putting the teams in direct competition. Since Peach and Jay arrived first, they get to pick who plays whom. Of course, they put Andy and Parker against Raul and Jameica, and they choose to play the Ashleys. Raul and Jameica advance to the finals where they play Peach and Jay for Passing Lane rights.
8. Can SkyCaddie carry my clubs? Those little GPS things the teams use to measure distances are pretty sweet. And the commercials featuring Natalie Gulbis are pretty sweet, too.
9. Don’t cross the streams! Like violating the cardinal rule in Ghostbusters, Jay violates a rule in golf — you can’t touch the line of your putt. Peach does this, and pretty emphatically. “I’m going to hit it to THIS spot,” as he tamps his putter down. Raul calls him on it. Darren King, the referee, reviews the tapes and agrees with Raul. In match play, this rules violation is loss of hole. Raul and Jameica win yet another week off, and Rob and Charlotte get spared from a strike. And still … no one is eliminated. I think they must be saving all the eliminations for the final episode. Damn you, superlegs!!
