"Back Nine" September 30, 2022

[Joe Ross]

My husband bought me a set of golf clubs and ten golf lessons for my retirement. Guess the puzzle this week was a ‘sign’. Better get going.

@Onaquest Golf is one of those games where it becomes more enjoyable the better you get. And that only comes with practice and playing. Stick with it.

Practicing your 19th hole skills is the best investment at every level of play.

[femullen]

Everyone else's favourite golf joke: me golfing.

[Scott M]

Everyone else's favourite golf joke: me golfing.

Maybe not the foursome behind you

[The XWord Rabbit]

A bountiful week for Muggles usually means a lonely week for The XWord Rabbit and the “Back Nine” by Mr. Berry was no exception. A few of you were frustrated for a brief while, but Zoom calls largely took care of that. Tales of roads frustratingly taken were quickly replaced by golf jokes. What’s a rabbit to do?

The critical step to the solution was recognizing that the phrases contained in the four anchor entries were reversible, forming nine words that began nine of the clues. The start letters of the answers to those clues led to the meta: CLUBHOUSE.

The stampede to the shore quickly dashed much hope of The XWord Rabbit finding much to talk about. (Note: Those of you who might question the use of the word “stampede” as it applies to ocean dwellers should be reminded that dolphins do, indeed, stampede, as this will attest:




But your Rabbit digresses. In hard times he can always depend on a small group of Muggles who make struggling their life’s work. One in particular is @woozy who has been very close, but never nominated. This week is different. His tale of redemption is too deserving of pity to ignore.

“I anagrammed first (“Club Shoe + u? What’s a club shoe + u”) and got club house and saw they were in clue order which is my least favorite least intuitive order.

I tried spelling words backwards and but APE, ERA, NEMO, TEN etc. but you know that is a rabbit hole when it’s not a slam dunk (“Is DAP a word? For that matter is NEMO? And what about words that are already palindromes such as TAT (is that a word) and ANNA”)

Over three days I never spent more than 10 minutes at a time. I tried doing the ends of words: BAH + A; BRA + C; RED + R; LATE + P. But what about SET which is in the realm of feeling like a coincidence and STAR which could be STAR or STARE.

It wasn’t until tonight (“Gee, I guess I shouldn’t give up on it”) that I noticed NAVY and the RED + ROOT + EDAM and EDAM = CHEESE and notice that nine words RED, ROOT, SET, ANIMAL etc. but at that point my wife threw me out the door and told me I had to walk the dog. I felt bad as there was EDAM = cheese but nothing that really meant the other words (some ambiguously similar but none “meaning” the words. Certainly, no ROOT or RED or STARE or NAVY). As I walked the dog I remember “but HATED is there”. I dragged the dog to the finish the walk to see if I can find the rest. First time through the grid SET could be laid but it was kind of cheating as “set” was actually in the clue. Going through the grid I figured some had the word in the clue and weren’t actually synonymous with the word at all. “Surely that’s considered too simply and spelling things out *too* much” but there it was. The words WERE and HAD TO BE in the clues themselves.

That makes this one of the easiest puzzles in months.
But it was one of the hardest to solve easy puzzles I have ever seen.”

Your XWord Rabbit was particularly impressed by the stream-of-consciousness editorializing and bringing one’s wife and family dog into the story. What good is a rabbit hole if you can’t drag everyone you know into it with you?

And now it’s time to move on. To those of you who breezed through this week’s meta, just remember: The difficulty of these puzzles has a way of evening out, so you know what that means come Thursday afternoon. Until then …

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is CLUBHOUSE. Each of the four longest answers, if reversed, can be broken into two or three shorter words: MADE-TO-ORDER >RED/ROOT/EDAM; LAMINATES>SET/ANIMAL; BILGE RATS>STARE/GLIB; DELIVERY VAN>NAVY/ REVILED. Those shorter words begin nine clues (15-, 38- and 44-Across, and 1-, 3-, 33-, 44-, 49- and 52-Down). The first letters of the answers to those clues (in clue order) spell the contest answer.

We are always thrilled when Patrick Berry contributes a contest puzzle and this one was characteristically ingenious. It drew a big crowd too: 1626 entries, about 80% correct. Incorrect entries included lots of other golf terms in small numbers: EAGLE (9), TEE (9, including variants like TEE OFF), HOLE IN ONE (8), BOGIE (7), and others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Regina Cassidy of Staten Island, NY!

[Limerick Savant]

Addressed to the nines

I’m nothing if not a good sport
In search of a pithy retort
This week I made bogey
Just like an old fogey
A day late, and five dollars short

I didn’t get to the 19th hole until last night when I finally had time to work the grid and solve the meta in pretty short order without sneaking a peek or going out of bounds. Still that puts me 1 over par for this week even if I reached the “clubhouse” on my own.

The key for me appeared in 39A with “GLIB” in reverse standing out from a pretty unusual answer and then remembering it as the start of the clue for 44D and the answer, “URBANE.” From there it was quick work to find the other 8 words and linked clues/answers yielding the nine letters, C L U B H O U S E in order. So no mug entry this week but the satisfaction of finishing a virtual round much better than I ever have IRL.

What really has me teed off however is that I may have to abandon my usual ritual of pen and newsprint on Friday nights because the WSJ no longer has a carrier in my area and has switched to by mail delivery. Though I received Friday’s edition on time, the Saturday newspaper didn’t arrive until yesterday along with Monday’s. Better watch out because if I am forced to switch to digital, I am likely to turn competitive and vie for a first page spot on this forum.

[Limerick Savant]

Ashore. 1 John Daly, please.

I’m afraid to ask but what is a John Daly?

[HunterX]

Ashore. 1 John Daly, please.

I’m afraid to ask but what is a John Daly?

It's an Arnold Palmer, but with Vodka.

Kinda like John Daly...

[Limerick Savant]

For those of you who wondered what I was talking about when I mentioned our local agricultural Fair -- here I am in Greeter mode:

I just have one question. What did the sign “ADULT VEGETABLES” mean?

[Limerick Savant]

Ashore. 1 John Daly, please.

I’m afraid to ask but what is a John Daly?

It's an Arnold Palmer, but with Vodka.

Kinda like John Daly...

So does the vodka replace the iced tea or the lemonade?

[HunterX]

I’m afraid to ask but what is a John Daly?

It's an Arnold Palmer, but with Vodka.

Kinda like John Daly...

So does the vodka replace the iced tea or the lemonade?

Knowing John Daly's former reputation, half of one, half of the other. But I don't know the "correct" ratios.

[Limerick Savant]

Thanks for all the entertaining posts this week including the golf jokes, many which I hadn’t heard before. What a clever group you all are! Helped me forget my good solve spoiled.

[ship4u]

I just have one question. What did the sign “ADULT VEGETABLES” mean?

Aphrodisiac Foods, perhaps?

[Wendy Walker]

@ship4u and @Limerick Savant , the Adult and Youth Vegetable categories are named SOLELY based on the age of the person entering the vegetable! Nothing else! The winner of the adult class was a perfect head of cabbage. The winner of the youth class was a group of perfectly uniform habanero peppers.

[Guffman]

@ship4u and @Limerick Savant , the Adult and Youth Vegetable categories are named SOLELY based on the age of the person entering the vegetable! Nothing else! The winner of the adult class was a perfect head of cabbage. The winner of the youth class was a group of perfectly uniform habanero peppers.

I was hoping the "Adult Vegetable" category would have entries something like this --

[JJD]

Very late to shore, but I swam in my own.
Hi Muggles!