Jon Baker had led the 2024 TEG Green Jacket (Gross) for 35 holes, ever since the second hole of round one. A triple bogey at the first at Royal Óbidos handed it to David Mullin at the start of round three. The lead then changed three more times inside the round. Baker drew level with a bogey at the second, one of the hardest holes on the course, and went back in front at the fifth. Mullin retook it with a par at the sixth, only for Baker to draw level with a bogey at the seventh and lead again at the eighth. Drawing level with bogeys is not glamorous. It is, however, permitted.

By the close of play Baker held the Jacket outright. He was helped considerably by Mullin's Stableford total falling from 47 points in round two to 35, a swing of 12. Baker also carded a course personal best at Royal Óbidos, eight strokes better than his previous visit there.

The same round did the same work in the 2024 TEG Trophy. Baker's overnight lead of two points stretched to eleven as Mullin faded. Baker now commands both races heading into the back half of the tournament. Mullin has 35 holes of memories.

At Royal Óbidos, John Patterson followed a second round of 22 Stableford points with a 41. A swing of 19 points is not an improvement. It is a change of identity.

He began dreadfully. A double bogey at the 4th, a triple bogey at the 5th, then more doubles at the 6th and 7th. A birdie at the 8th stopped the bleeding. Thereafter he found his best form, going through the 12th and 13th without dropping a gross shot and piling up 13 points across holes 12 to 15. It amounted to his best gross score at the course this TEG.

Gregg Williams travelled in the opposite direction, and with more commitment. A quadruple bogey nine at the par-5 5th served as an early notice of intent. There was a brief recovery at the 11th, which in hindsight looks cruel. From the 12th he collapsed entirely: seven holes without a net par, 14 shots dropped across them. A double bogey at the 14th confirmed his descent to the bottom of the 2024 Wooden Spoon race. He and Patterson simply swapped places, Patterson having held that position before the round. One man was rescued. The other volunteered.

Alex Baker assembled the worst gross round in the field at Royal Óbidos. It was a card with double-figure damage at both ends and very little in between.

The trouble began early. A quadruple bogey 8 at the 4th, the hardest hole on the course, was followed immediately by a quadruple bogey 9 at the par-5 5th. Across holes 4 to 7 he bled 12 shots. He kept walking, unhurried, like a man being led from a building he had just set fire to.

Worse followed at the close. Across holes 12 to 16, Alex Baker shipped 15 shots, a stretch that included a sextuple bogey 10 at the 14th. That was the round's low point, and it took some finding. The 18th declined to offer sanctuary, yielding another quadruple bogey, a 9 on the par-5 closer.

The round finished well outside Alex Baker's own best figures at the course, and the round-of-the-day comparison recorded the field's worst gross score of the day at 38. It nevertheless counts as this TEG's best score so far at Royal Óbidos for Alex Baker. A floor, of sorts, given what it followed.