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TEG 4 · Round 3Crowborough · 31/08/2011

JON BAKER

Baker Roars Back At Crowborough

A four-hole purple patch bracketed by two quadruple bogeys somehow still added up to the best net score of the round.

Jon Baker arrived at Crowborough carrying the wreckage of Round 2, which had left him nine over par net. He left it three under net. That is a swing of twelve shots, and it was the best net score of the day at the TEG 4 Trophy. The round-of-the-day figure came in at 13, so he was not far off that mark either.

The recovery was assembled in the middle of the round. From the 11th to the 14th he made four consecutive pars and gained five shots on net par. One of them came at the 12th, the second hardest hole on the course. Nobody could accuse him of picking on the weak.

Then came the 15th, and a quadruple bogey, arriving without notice or apology. He steadied himself over the next two holes. At the 18th a second quadruple bogey removed any suggestion that the steadying had taken. Four flawless holes, then two blow-ups. The round contained his worst golf of the tournament and his best, and made no attempt to separate them.

THE RACES

Jacket Widens As Trophy Levels

A near-record gross round for one man and a last-gasp collapse for another reshuffled all three competitions in a single afternoon.

David Mullin went round Crowborough Beacon in a gross 17. It is the second-best gross round recorded in TEG history to date. It also managed to disturb all three competitions at once.

On the Trophy, the lead changed hands on net score four times. Mullin took it at the 10th. Jon Baker drew level at the 11th, then drew level again at the 2nd. Mullin pulled back level at the 15th. They finished tied outright, gap zero. Mullin had started the day two clear, so the second-best gross round in TEG history earned him precisely nothing where it counted.

The Green Jacket tells the other story. Mullin still leads, and the margin has stretched from seven to 16, blown open by the sheer scale of the gross number. Same round, same man, two different scoring systems doing their jobs.

The Wooden Spoon moved too. Stuart Neumann held the bottom spot, and a double bogey at the 2nd, the stroke index 1, pushed him further into it. He was then rescued from below. Henry Meller, coming off a strong second round, made a triple bogey at the 14th and slid to last himself. The Spoon is now his, by four shots.

GREGG WILLIAMS

Four Blow-Ups Sink Williams

Three quadruple bogeys inside the first six holes were only the start of it.

Gregg Williams's third round at Crowborough Beacon took six holes to complete its essential work. A double bogey at the 1st. Quadruple bogeys at the 2nd, the 4th and the 5th. Double bogeys at the 3rd and the 6th, filling in the gaps between them with real diligence. Eighteen shots dropped in six holes, and a five-hole stretch without a single net par.

The quadruple at the 2nd came at the hardest hole on the course. At least he was selective.

A fourth quadruple bogey followed at the 15th. He then played the 16th and the 17th to gross par, a passage of entirely competent golf that arrived several hours after it was needed. Any repair work had long since been rendered decorative.

The round also cost him in the Wooden Spoon race. The damage at the 4th dropped him from third to fifth in a field of five. There is no sixth.

It stands as the third-worst gross score recorded in TEG history to date, and Williams's own second-worst on both the gross and net scales. A man can only do so much in one afternoon.

Records & Personal Bests

Notable achievements: TEG 4, Round 3

TEG records

  • David Mullin's +17 (gross) is the 2nd-best Gross round in TEG history to date