John Patterson arrived at Royal Óbidos with a ten-shot lead in the TEG 9 Trophy, built on a near-record 49-point round two. Round three attended to that. He bled 8 shots across holes 2 to 4: a double bogey at the par-5 2nd, then triple bogeys at the 3rd and the 4th, the last of those on the hardest hole on the course. Worse arrived later. A quadruple bogey 8 at the 12th, one of the harder holes on the card. Then a quadruple bogey 9 at the par-5 18th to finish. It was the punctuation the round had earned.

The total came to 34 points, a fall of 15 from his round two score. He remained top of the Trophy standings, which is the only mercy available here. The lead that had looked unassailable now stood at three shots going into round four. David Mullin, meanwhile, continued to lead the Green Jacket race, his advantage entirely untroubled by Patterson's afternoon.

Jon Baker's third round at Royal Óbidos read like two different rounds stitched together by someone who had not read either. He opened in fine form. Three holes from the 1st to the 3rd passed without a shot dropped from tee to green. By the 5th he had 16 Stableford points banked, built on a birdie at the par-5 2nd, with a single blemish at the brutal SI-1 4th. He looked, briefly, like a man with a plan.

Then came the 10th to the 12th. A double bogey opened proceedings. A quadruple bogey 9 at the par-5 11th followed. Another double closed it out. Three holes, no net pars, eight gross shots gone, on a stretch that included the SI-2 12th.

What had promised something special finished as 34 points and +22 gross. His front nine and his back nine were ten points apart. Nobody else managed a split that lopsided all day.

David Mullin's round 3 at Royal Óbidos had its rough patch. It did not cost him his position. At the 10th, a par 4 of stroke index 8, he made a nine. That is a quintuple bogey, and his worst hole of the tournament so far. Nothing in the round had signalled it. Earlier he had assembled his steadiest stretch of the tournament, playing the 2nd and 3rd without dropping a gross shot: a par, then a birdie at the 3rd.

The nine changed nothing at all. Mullin had carried a seven-shot lead into the round in the TEG 9 Green Jacket race. He left with a seven-shot lead. The men behind him had been handed an opportunity and declined it politely.