David Mullin produced the best round recorded in TEG history on Boavista's third round. A net -2, which also stands as the best gross round ever posted. It was an 18-over-par 89. Both of those things are true at once, and the second one tells you rather a lot about this company.

It was a new course record for Boavista, beating the previous mark of 91 set across ten prior visits. It improved Mullin's own best on the course by two strokes.

The leaderboard rearranged itself accordingly. Mullin arrived at Boavista second in the TEG Trophy, three behind Jon Baker. He left it seven clear at the top, having swung from worst to first among the field of five. He held the Green Jacket lead throughout and extended it to eleven. That is the double, Mullin's first, with no prior instances recorded in TEG history.

The context makes it stranger still. In round two Mullin had shot an 8, one of the worst scores of the tournament. He then posted a -2 the very next day. A swing of ten shots, offered without explanation and requiring no apology. Henry Meller, for his part, remained anchored to the bottom of the Wooden Spoon standings, now twelve back from safety.

Henry Meller produced the round of his tournament at Boavista Golf & Spa Resort on Monday. It changed nothing whatsoever.

His gross 20 was the second-best gross round recorded in TEG history to date. It arrived directly after a miserable Round 2 that had left him near the bottom of the field. The swing from a 13 to a 2 stands as one of the sharpest turnarounds of the tournament. Somewhere in the middle of it he went two holes without dropping a shot, birdieing the par-4 5th and then parring the 6th. In the context of his week, this was a golden age.

It was also a course personal best for Meller at Boavista, on his third visit to the venue, eleven strokes better than his previous visit there. None of it moved him off the bottom of the Wooden Spoon race. He was the laggard before the round and the laggard after it. The gap to safety narrowed from 16 to 12. That is the kind of progress that gets a man precisely nowhere.

Jon Baker began the third round holding the Trophy lead by three shots. The start he made at Boavista put the race beyond him.

He opened with a double bogey at the 1st. He added another double at the 2nd. He then ran up an 8 at the par-5 3rd. A triple bogey followed at the par-3 4th, one of the hardest holes on the course. A double bogey at the par-4 5th completed the sequence. Five holes, not one net par, 12 gross shots gone.

The damage did not end there. On the back nine he posted a quadruple bogey 8 at the par-4 15th. Between the two collapses the round unravelled far enough to hand the initiative to David Mullin, who took over the Trophy lead. Baker's three-shot advantage going into the day was a seven-shot deficit by the close of play. He arrived as the leader and left as the exhibit.