Jon Baker's opening round did two different jobs in two different competitions. That is what handicapping is for. On the par-5 5th, a bogey was still enough to move him into the outright lead of the Green Jacket (Gross). By the close of the day his card carried the best gross score of the field, and he stood at the very top of the Jacket standings after Round 1.

The Stableford column was less generous. Holes 7 to 9 undid him twice over: three holes without a net par, and seven gross shots gone across a double bogey on the par-5 7th, a double on the par-3 8th and a triple on the par-4 9th. A closing double bogey on the 18th dropped him to the bottom of the Wooden Spoon race. By the end of the day Alex Baker led the Trophy, level on points at the top. Jon Baker sat bottom of the Trophy and bottom of the Spoon, and top of the Jacket. He had, in fairness, gone round in fewer shots than anybody else.

John Patterson's opening round at PGA Catalunya - Tour demonstrated both things golf can do. The quadruple-bogey 8 at the 3rd set the tone. Triples followed at the 4th, 7th and 9th, doubles at the 5th, 6th and 10th. Across holes 3 to 10 he dropped 22 shots. He went seven holes without a single net par. The triple at the 4th sent him to the bottom of the 2025 TEG Wooden Spoon race, which read less as news than as confirmation.

The back nine belonged to somebody else entirely. From the 13th to the 16th he took 13 stableford points. He played the par-4 13th, the hardest hole on the course, and the par-3 14th without dropping a gross shot at all. The nines differed by 14 points. The card finished on 34 stableford points and said nothing whatsoever about the first ten holes.

David Mullin's opening round at PGA Catalunya - Tour unravelled at the 15th. A sextuple bogey 11 on the par-5, the worst score he has ever recorded on that hole. Four previous visits to the course had not prepared anyone for it. The card it ruined had twice been good enough to share the lead in the TEG 18 Green Jacket race. A quadruple bogey 8 at the 6th had already removed most of the margin for error.

The 15th settled more than the Jacket. The blow-up dropped Mullin from second to fifth in the TEG 18 Wooden Spoon race, sending him to the bottom of that table. His round here was 16 strokes worse than his last visit, and well short of his prior best gross of 84 at the venue. A card of genuine promise, filed instead under evidence.

Gregg Williams contrived to play two rounds inside one. He opened by bleeding eight shots over three holes from the 3rd: back-to-back triple bogeys, then a double at the 5th. He did not make a net par in any of them. The par-5 7th then took a quadruple-bogey 9, which ended whatever momentum was still being claimed.

Then, implausibly, he stopped it. A birdie at the 15th closed the bleeding. By the 16th he had drawn level for the outright lead in the TEG Green Jacket (Gross). It did not hold. A bogey at the 14th had already dropped him to the bottom of the TEG Wooden Spoon standings. A second quadruple bogey, at the 17th, confirmed the position. Two blow-up holes, two brief flashes of contention, and a finish at the wrong end of the field.