Jon Baker took the TEG 12 Green Jacket at +63, eight shots clear of David Mullin. It is the best gross total of his career and the third-lowest recorded in TEG history.

The lead was his from the 16th hole of the opening round at PGA Catalunya's Tour Course, and he held it for 23 holes across three rounds. It ended on the third hole of round three, the first day on the Stadium Course, where a par five at the 3rd was sufficient for Gregg Williams to move ahead of him. Baker did not appear to take this personally. He birdied the par-five 12th, parred the 13th, and went into the final round with the gap closed.

Sunday settled it. Baker went round the Stadium Course in 89 gross, a new course record. The previous mark was 90, set across 15 prior visits, and it belonged to Baker, from TEG 11. He beat the record. The record was his. There is no one else to thank. He also went three holes without dropping a shot to par from the 14th to the 16th, par at the 14th, par at the par-five 15th and par at the short 16th, through precisely the stretch where a round of that sort tends to evaporate.

It was the fifth TEG visit to the Stadium Course and the third to Catalonia. Williams also posted a course best there, 92 in the final round, which on any other day would have been the story.

Gregg Williams arrived in Catalonia in 2019 and immediately produced the best gross round of his TEG career: +12 at PGA Catalunya's Tour Course in Round 1, an 84 that beat his previous best on the course by eight shots. It equalled the Tour Course record of 84, set by Jon Baker in TEG 11. Jon Baker matched it in the same round, and David Mullin matched it in Round 2. Across the four rounds he finished at +76 gross, also a personal best. His 92 on the Stadium Course in Round 4 was a course best too, eight strokes better than his 100 there in Round 3.

For a time this was enough to put him in front. Jon Baker had led the TEG 12 Green Jacket from the 16th hole of Round 1, a run of 23 holes, and lost it to Williams at the 3rd in Round 3.

Round 3 on the Stadium Course was also where Williams lost it back, and rather more besides. He took nine at the par-four 4th, five over, and carried on with the composure of a man who considered the matter closed. Then, from the 11th, he played three holes in twelve over. A double bogey at the short 11th. A triple at the par-five 12th. An eleven at the par-four 13th, seven over on one hole and the worst score he has recorded on a par four. No net par came in the stretch, which at least kept the arithmetic tidy.

Three holes, then, cost him a tournament in which he otherwise played the best gross golf of his career. He will have the numbers to console him. They are very good numbers.

Alex Baker's tournament began coming apart on the second hole of the first round at PGA Catalunya's Tour course. A par three. Stroke index 18, the easiest hole on the card. He took seven, a quadruple bogey, and thereby installed himself at the bottom of the TEG 12 Wooden Spoon race before most of the field had found their rhythm. He kept at it on the same lap: a 10 at the par-five 10th and an 8 at the 13th, the hardest hole on the course, which at least felt fairer.

The second round was a study in contrasts, in that it contained both golf and the absence of it. Baker took 12 points from holes 2 to 5 and nine more from 13 to 15. In between he bled 11 shots across holes 6 to 9, going double, triple, triple, triple, an escalation with no obvious brake, until a birdie at the 10th brought proceedings to a halt.

He had climbed back to fifth by the third round on the Stadium course, and then undid it with some care: an 8 at the 2nd, nine shots dropped over holes 2 to 4, and four straight holes without a net par from the 15th, the double bogey at the 17th returning him to the bottom rung he had worked so hard to vacate.

The Sunday reply was his best golf on the property. Baker's 93 at the Stadium was a course personal best, beating the 100 he had managed in TEG 11, and eight strokes better than his 101 there in Round 3. Thirteen strokes is a great deal of improvement. It also tells you where he started.

David Mullin finished with 139 points and the TEG 12 Wooden Spoon, his second in succession. A man with eight Green Jackets does not arrive at the bottom by accident. He has to apply himself.

It had not begun that way. On the Tour course in round two he made four straight pars from the 5th through the 8th for 12 points, part of a 40-point round, and his 84 there was his best gross score on the Tour course in four visits. Round three, on the Stadium course, returned 30 points, a drop of ten on the previous day and the first sign that the structure was unsound.

The demolition came early on Sunday, and it was methodical. At the par-5 3rd he took nine strokes, a quadruple bogey, no points. At the par-4 4th he took eight, another quadruple bogey, another blank. A double bogey at the short 5th completed the set: ten shots lost in three holes and one solitary point to show for it. The nine at the 3rd was the shot that deposited him at the bottom of the Wooden Spoon standings. He remained there. There was no realistic route out and, to his credit, he did not pretend otherwise.

He then played the rest of the round rather well, which is the cruellest detail of all. From the 11th to the 14th he went par, birdie, par, birdie, 14 points without dropping a gross shot, and closed with a 92, his best Stadium round of the four days and one stroke off the 91 he shot there in TEG 11. It lifted him nowhere. The Spoon was already engraved.

Stuart Neumann managed, over four days, to write his name into the record book at both ends of it.

He started at the wrong end. His 105 gross on the PGA Catalunya Tour course in Round 1 is the highest score recorded there in eleven visits, surpassing a course-worst of 103 that had presumably felt safe. Two holes did the heavy lifting: a 10 at the par-4 13th, and a 12 at the par-5 15th. Seven over on a single hole. The worst score against par of his career, and the worst any player has posted in TEG history.

What followed was a patient reconstruction. On the same course on Friday he took 13 points from holes 3 to 6, closing with a birdie at the 6th, and his 93 that day was a personal best on the Tour course, five strokes better than his previous 98. Round 3 on the Stadium course reintroduced doubt: ten shots dropped across holes 14 to 17, including a 9 at the 15th.

The 15th settled the account in Round 4. After a double bogey at the 13th and a bogey at the 14th, with nothing much apparently at stake, Neumann holed out for a three on the par 5. An eagle. The only one recorded by anyone in the tournament, and the first eagle logged in any TEG. His 96 that day was a Stadium course best, four better than his last visit. The man who held the worst round in the course's history also holds the first eagle in the competition's. Both facts are his. He is welcome to them.