mystery solved . it appears my friend played and beat a legend twice and this propelled him up to tour master without the need to average the 63 needed most of the time .
his problem now is because he made tour master by the backdoor his scoring is terrible . I thought about asking two of my legend friends to let me beat them so i can move to tour master but on reflection playing in tournaments in my cc i have a better handicap so more chance of winning .
Status is in the eye of the beholder and not the be all .