Two things happened to Jon Baker at the 2nd on Monday. Both of them cost him. His triple-bogey 7 returned no points and deposited him at the bottom of the TEG 18 Wooden Spoon race, displacing David Mullin, who had been two clear of him. By the close of play the gap back to the next man was 14. Some men lose ground. Baker lost a postcode.

On the same hole, Gregg Williams made a par. It was entirely routine and it took outright possession of the TEG 18 Green Jacket lead from Baker, converting a two-shot deficit into an eight-shot advantage. Williams's 85 was his best gross round at the Stadium Course, seven strokes better than his previous visit.

Baker's round never recovered, though it did find further ways to express itself. A 9 at the par-4 4th came next. He then closed with four straight double bogeys from the 15th, bleeding eight shots and returning precisely one point on each. It had the rhythm of a man honouring a contract. His 28 points was 11 fewer than the 39 he posted in round two, and the lowest Trophy score in the field.

Alex Baker signed for 100 gross on his fifth visit to the Stadium Course. That is seven strokes worse than he managed here last time. He walked off with 44 points, the best Trophy return in the field of five, and pushed his lead in the 2025 TEG Trophy from 11 to 12. The handicap system is not a moral framework.

The gross number was assembled almost entirely in one stretch. From the 6th through the 10th he dropped 12 shots. A triple bogey at the 6th. Doubles at the 7th, the 8th and the 9th, the hardest hole on the course. Another triple at the 10th. Five holes yielded eight points, and he kept walking.

What followed was the reverse of all that. Holes 11 to 16 brought him 21 points. Pars at the 11th, 13th and 14th, bogeys at the 12th, 15th and 16th. At the 13th and 14th he did not drop a gross shot at all. The handicap absorbed the wreckage. The scorecard did not.

The Stadium Course at Camiral is a Championship parkland layout and, on its five previous outings, had given this field almost nothing. On the sixth visit it capitulated. The best Stableford return of the day was 44 points. The worst, in a five-man field, was 28.

Two of the cards were the best either man has produced here. David Mullin signed for 84 gross, beating his previous best at the course by seven and his last visit by eight. Gregg Williams went round in 85, seven better than his last time out, and a course best as well.

Both declared their intentions early. Mullin parred the first three holes, including the 1st, one of the hardest on the course, for nine points. Williams was more productive still: four consecutive pars from the 2nd through the 5th, worth 12 points, not one of them costing him a gross shot.

Williams's round also carried him to the front of the 2025 Green Jacket race, eight clear of the field.