Phachara Khongwatmai continued his remarkable week at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth as the revolutionary knockout round got under way at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.
With 24 players having advanced from the 54 holes of stroke play, 16 of those teed off in round one, playing for the opportunity to face one of the eight seeds.
They were playing six holes of match play on the tenth, second, eighth, 11th, 12th and 18th, with a 93-yard shoot-out hole available to separate any matches that are all square.
Khongwatmai, just 17 years old, prevailed from a dramatic play-off on Saturday night to claim the last place in the knockout stages and carried his momentum into round one, beating UBS Hong Kong Open champion Sam Brazel one up.
Adam Bland, Johannes Veerman and David Bransdon all claimed wins on the shoot-out hole, while there were also victories for Hideto Tanihara, Matthew Millar, Nick Cullen and Wade Ormsby.
Khongwatmai put his approach to four feet at the second for a birdie but Brazel hit back on the third, putting his own second shot to six feet for a birdie.
Another birdie from the Thai on the next then edged him back ahead and the duo parred home, with Khongwatmai next facing Lucas Herbert.
Tanihara beat Duncan Stewart one up thanks to a brilliant tee-shot on the par three third.
Both players started with a par and then birdied the second, with Tanihara making it two in a row courtesy of that tee-shot before he and Stewart parred the way home.
The Japanese will next take on top seed Brett Rumford, who finished the 54 holes of stroke play with a five-shot lead.
A single won hole was also enough to hand Millar a one up win over Casey O'Toole.
A three-putt bogey saw the American surrender the second with the other five holes halved in pars as Millar moved on to face Canadian Austin Connelly.
Bland became the first man to claim a victory on the shoot-out hole as he beat Thomas Detry at the second attempt.
Detry fired to six feet to win the opening hole but Bland got back to all square on the second as the Belgian hit a ragged tee-shot to bogey. A 20-foot putt on the fifth then gave him a one up lead going up the last but a clutch birdie from eight-feet from the Australian sent them to the shoot-out hole.
They halved it in pars the first time around but a Bland birdie sent him through to face Adam Blyth.
Cullen prevailed two up against Ryan Evans in a match with no halved holes.
Cullen three-putted the first to send Evans one up but holed a ten-footer at the next to bounce straight back and start a run of three in a row. The Australian holed from ten feet on the third and then drained a brilliant 45-footer on the fourth to move two up with two to play.
Evans holed from five feet on the next to take it up the last but bogeyed the 18th and Cullen went on to face Jason Scrivener.
Veerman needed three trips up the shoot-out hole to defeat Daniel Fox and set up a clash with Louis Oosthuizen.
Fox bogeyed the second after finding the sand but Veerman surrendered a bogey after missing the green on the par three fifth and they became the first pair to head to the extra hole, which was won with par at the third attempt.
Bransdon will face friend Steven Jeffress next after beating Jeev Milkha Singh with a birdie from 15 feet on the first attempt on the shoot-out hole.
Singh bogeyed the second to send Bransdon one up but the Indian veteran almost holed out on the next to get straight back to all square. Bransdon moved back ahead as Singh bogeyed the fifth and the Australian had a chance to win the match from two-and-a-half feet but missed his putt on the last.
Ormsby beat Pep Angles one up.
Angles failed to get up and down on the second to surrender a bogey and was soon two down after repeating the trick on the next, with Ormsby saving par from the same bunker.
The Australian could not save par after missing the green on the fifth and the match went up the last, with both men making birdie. Ormsby will next face Jake Higginbottom.
