Round one of the 2017 TEG 10 Trophy (Stableford) at Boavista Golf & Spa Resort brought plenty of movement at the top, all of it the ordinary jockeying of an opening round. Jon Baker moved to the outright Trophy lead with a par at the 9th, and the same hole brought him level at the top of the Jacket standings. David Mullin drew level for the Trophy lead at the 10th. Alex Baker joined the tie at the 11th, having already shared it once at the 6th.

Alex Baker's round was competitive and profoundly untidy. A quadruple bogey at the 2nd, then another at the 8th. Against those, a run of three bogeys across holes 4 to 6 that still yielded nine Stableford points. Handicap golf occasionally pays out for being merely bad. By the close, David Mullin had emerged with a share of both the Trophy and the Jacket lead.

At the other end, John Patterson dropped to the bottom of the Wooden Spoon table after a bogey at the 4th. A quadruple bogey at the 6th and a quintuple bogey at the 8th settled matters. One round in, the tenancy already looked permanent.

The closing stretch at Boavista did most of the damage in round one. The 18th, at SI 5 one of the tougher finishing holes, was especially unforgiving.

Stuart Neumann bore the brunt of it. Already toiling, he ran up a quadruple bogey 8 at the 15th. He added another quadruple at the 17th. He then closed with a sextuple bogey 10 at the 18th. Sixteen shots over his last four holes, with the very worst of them reserved for the final green. There is a kind of golfer who believes a round can still be saved at the last. The 10 answered him. It left him well adrift of his best-ever total on the course.

He was not alone. John Patterson, playing Boavista for the first time, dropped 11 shots over the same closing four holes and went the last three without a single net par. The course made a firm first impression. Gregg Williams offered a quintuple bogey 9 at the 18th, apparently in solidarity.

Amid the wreckage, David Mullin found the opposite: birdie, par, par down the last three for 10 points, and a personal-best round on the course. He appeared to be playing somewhere else entirely. Given the evidence around him, that is a reasonable conclusion.