We're down to eight players on Big Break Kaanapali after Dana (I won't use her nickname, Gayle, I promise) managed to fumble not once but several times in an elimination challenge where she could've easily put away one of the strongest players in the field. At one point while watching the show last night, after hearing myself call both Dana and her protégé Susan "stupid" for not playing it safe when they both had leads on Kim, whose putting had left the planet, I said to my husband, "Ouch -- was I too mean there?" He turned to me, eyes still wide from what he had just witnessed, and shook his head: "No," he said, "that was beyond stupid." He also asked that I print him up a t-shirt with a picture of Andrew Magee throwing his hands in the air and the quote "What's going on??" written underneath it. I may look into that. It was by far the funniest moment of the season so far.

This episode did indeed turn into one sloppy mess for a few of the players, but it also had some of the best golf shots we'd seen so far. First off, Lori ran up and crushed the glass in the glass-breaking challenge on her first swing, and Tina on her second. I don't know how familiar you are with this exercise, but it's one of the toughest things you'll ever try (Golf Channel sometimes broadcasts an exhibition they did with some PGA Tour players a few years back, where you get to see the likes of Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk take a stab at it -- not under relay conditions like the girls did in Kaanapali, mind you, but at their own pace -- and it took them quite a few tries to break that glass). Luckily for Lori and Tina, they were on the same team, so that pretty much secured their spots on the next show.

Another shot for the record books came when Kim stepped up to the tee on the third hole of the second immunity challenge, knowing that her two teammates' dismal play had already put her into the elimination (I must agree with the peanut gallery here; what in the world were they thinking putting Susan on the par 5 rather than Kim?). She was ticked off, more so than even I realized at the time (I'm loving watching the girls' confessionals on the show -- they were still pretty polite to each other on the course at this point, so we didn't quite know what they were thinking) and she pounded that drive all the way to Molokai. Then she made the long birdie putt, probably just to prove a point, and moved on to the elimination way too angry for her own good. It almost sent her home. The putts she stroked in that elimination challenge were nothing short of hideous, as she readily admitted in her confessional. But since her opponents Dana and Susan both managed to make some of the worst course-management decisions I've ever witnessed, she still squeaked by. Kim called her opponents' water shots (not just one but two for Dana) "a gift" in her interview after the round, and it couldn't have been a bigger one if it was tied up in a pretty ribbon. Since Susan chipped in early in the elimination challenge (another of the great shots on display amidst the carnage in this episode -- don't let her "Aw, shucks" demeanor fool you; this girl has a wicked short game) she was never threatened and, finally, had to watch her surrogate mom go home. What will this do to Susan's confidence? Can Kim recover from her near-fatal putting slump? Will Lori ever get nicer? You have to tune in next week to find out...