David Mullin's round at the Stadium course at Camiral began badly and then declined to settle on a direction. Bogey, double bogey, bogey through the first three. A birdie at the 4th halted it. A quadruple bogey seven at the 5th resumed it.

Then came the good part, and it was genuinely good. From the 8th to the 10th he dropped no gross shots at all and gained three to net par. The 9th, the hardest hole on the course, carried him into outright top spot in the 2013 Green Jacket standings, a lead taken directly off Jon Baker. For three holes, David Mullin was a golfer.

It held until the 14th. A double bogey there, a triple at the 15th, and another double at the 16th cost seven gross shots to par. The 15th is the easiest hole on the course. Baker drew level with him at the 16th and could do nothing with it. Mullin finished the round in front by four, which he had earned, mostly by other people being worse.

Stuart Neumann's final round at the Stadium course came apart at the par-5 3rd, where he signed for a quintuple bogey 10. What followed had a certain grim rhythm. A double bogey at the 4th. Another double at the par-3 5th. A triple bogey at the 6th. Twelve shots gone across those four holes, and not one net par to interrupt the sequence.

At his lowest point he was 16 shots off the Trophy lead. He then did something almost nobody managed all day. He stopped. The closing stretch brought him back to 9 behind Williams, a recovery of 7 from the bottom of it.

It was never going to reach the podium, with Williams's cushion over the field closing at 5. But the back nine turned a write-off into a scorecard he could hand in without commentary. The front nine remains on his record, permanently, in ink.