Jon Baker began the second round at Praia D'El Rey a single point clear in the TEG 9 Trophy race. The lead lasted until the middle of his card, and not a hole longer. From the 5th he went three holes without a net par. A double bogey at the 5th. Another at the 6th. A triple bogey at the par-5 7th. Seven shots gone, in the calm manner of a man conceding territory he had never really controlled.

He did recover, briefly. Three straight pars from the 11th suggested order restored. Then came the quadruple bogey at the short 14th, the same stroke-index-17 hole that had already had Alex Baker, and the run was over.

While Baker came apart, John Patterson took the outright Trophy lead with a bogey at the 1st and held it to the close. A bogey was all it required, which says something about the standard of the opposition. Baker's one-point advantage overnight became a ten-point deficit by the finish. Elsewhere David Mullin quietly retained his Green Jacket lead, extending it from two points to seven across the same round. Nobody appeared to notice him doing it.

Two holes did most of the damage in Round 2. Four players left their cards in ruins between the 5th and the 14th.

Gregg Williams took a sextuple bogey 10 at the par-4 9th. Stroke index 4, and no respecter of ambition. It also collected Stuart Neumann for a quadruple bogey 8. Neumann had already posted a quadruple bogey 8 at the 5th, stroke index 2 and one of the hardest holes on the course. From there his round simply stopped resisting. He finished 21 strokes worse than his previous visit here, which takes a certain commitment. He remains anchored to the bottom of the 2016 TEG Wooden Spoon race, and the gap behind him widened from 8 shots to 14. He is not so much losing this race as sponsoring it.

The short par-3 14th did the rest. Stroke index 17, normally one of the kinder holes on the property, a hole most men walk past without remembering. Alex Baker and Jon Baker each took a quadruple bogey 7 there. For Jon Baker it was expensive. He had led the Trophy race overnight. He ended the round 10 shots behind the new leader, John Patterson.

A day after carding the worst gross round of his life, Alex Baker arrived at Praia D'El Rey and rewrote his own records. Round 1 had yielded 32 points. Round 2 gave him 44, a personal-best round, underpinned by a gross score of +27, also a personal best.

This was not a tidy performance. Baker shed 8 shots across holes 10 to 12. The centrepiece was a quadruple bogey 9 at the par-5 10th, one of the easier stroke-index holes out there, which he treated with the gravity it did not deserve. A double bogey at the short 11th followed. Then another at the par-5 12th, for completeness.

The rest of the card was good enough to absorb all of it. It stands as his best gross score in three visits to Praia D'El Rey, nine shots better than anything he had managed here before, and comfortably his best figures for the course this TEG. Progress, arriving by the scenic route.