TEG 4 · Round 4

TROPHY

Mullin Completes the Double at Last

A seven-shot lead disappeared, the bottom of the table changed hands, and only one man finished the week where he started it: on top.

David Mullin completed the Trophy and Green Jacket double at TEG 4. It is only the second time in TEG history that one player has taken both titles in the same edition, the first having come at TEG 2. The Trophy race had one twist left in it before that was settled. Overnight leader Jon Baker pushed his advantage further with a birdie on the par-3 second at Bletchingley. It lasted a single hole. Mullin drew level with a bogey at the third that counted as net par, which tells you a great deal about the standard on offer. He then took the lead outright at the par-3 12th, one of the easiest holes on the course, with a net birdie. He did not hand it back. He finished the round eight shots clear in the Trophy and nineteen ahead in the Jacket race.

At the bottom of the field, the Wooden Spoon changed hands. Henry Meller claimed last place with a quintuple bogey on the tough par-5 11th, a serious piece of work. Gregg Williams then leapfrogged him with a quadruple bogey at the sixth and a triple bogey at the 13th. Meller applied for the Spoon. Williams wanted it more, and took it by five shots.

JON BAKER

Eagle at Eight, Ruin by Sixteen

An eagle that should have won him the Trophy instead marked the high point of a round that lost it.

David Mullin completed the double at Bletchingley, taking both the 2011 TEG Trophy and the 2011 TEG Green Jacket. It was only the second such double in TEG history, after TEG 2. He was assisted, generously, by Jon Baker.

Baker took the outright Trophy lead with a birdie at the 2nd. He extended it to seven shots with an eagle at the par-4 8th. At that point he was a man in full command of his own destiny. Between the 9th and the 15th he bled 27 gross shots. He ran up a sextuple-bogey nine at the par-3 12th, the easiest hole on the course, and then improved on it with an 11 at the par-5 15th, his worst hole of the tournament. Seven holes passed without a single net par. Baker had arrived off a three-under round three, the golf of a serious contender. He closed with a nine-over round four. The seven-shot lead was not eroded so much as demolished from the inside. Mullin ended the day eight clear at the top of the Trophy, having largely watched.

DAVID MULLIN

The Quietest Best Round of the Day

No eagles, no fireworks — just the best net and gross scores in the field, delivered on the day it mattered most.

David Mullin closed out TEG 4 by winning both the Trophy and the Green Jacket, a double achieved only once before in TEG history, at TEG 2.

His final round at Bletchingley was not spectacular. It was merely the best round of the day, the field's best Trophy score of the day standing at 15. Mullin began level for the Trophy lead after a bogey at the par-5 3rd. He then made pars at the 4th, 5th and 6th, one of them at the 5th, the hardest hole on the course. It was, briefly, the golf of a champion. At the par-3 7th he took a quadruple bogey. Three holes of patient work were erased in one go, at a par three, with the tournament on the line. He did not appear to consult anyone about it. It made no lasting difference. By the 12th he had drawn level again and moved into the outright Trophy lead with another par, and he never gave it up. He finished eight clear in the Trophy. He did not avoid the wreckage. He was simply the man whose wreckage cost him least, and with the Green Jacket already secured, that was quite enough.

WOODEN SPOON | GREGG WILLIAMS

Worst Round in TEG History

Forty-three over gross was enough to leapfrog Henry Meller into last place on the final day.

Gregg Williams's round four at Bletchingley Golf Club produced the worst gross round recorded in TEG history to date. It was 43 over par. It was worth 15 points. It delivered him the 2011 TEG Wooden Spoon, and no reasonable observer could say he had not earned it. The card collapsed in two distinct movements. He bled 13 shots across holes 4 to 7, including quadruple bogeys at the 5th and the 6th. Then he bled a further 16 across the closing six holes, a stretch containing a triple bogey, a quadruple bogey and four more dropped-shot holes in succession. There is no evidence he ever stopped trying. That is rather the point.

Henry Meller was busy with his own difficulties on the same course. He posted quintuple bogey 10s at the 11th and again at the 15th, spaced out like punctuation. He went four holes without a net par from the 8th to the 11th. That had been enough to drop him to the bottom of the Spoon race. Williams's heavier round then passed him going the other way. The laggard's spot changed hands, and Williams now sits five shots adrift of the next man up.

Records & Personal Bests

Notable achievements: TEG 4, Round 4

Personal worsts

  • Gregg Williams's worst round to date: +15
  • Gregg Williams's worst Gross round to date: +43

Rare feats

  • Jon Baker runs up an 11 (+6) at the 15th — his career-worst on a par-5
  • Jon Baker runs up a 9 (+6) at the 12th — his career-worst on a par-3
  • Jon Baker eagles the par-4 8th (R4)
  • Henry Meller runs up a 10 (+5) at the 15th — his career-worst on a par-5
  • Henry Meller runs up a 10 (+5) at the 11th — his career-worst on a par-5