Brett Rumford will take all the momentum into the match play finale of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth after continuing his fine form at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.
The home hero entered the final round of stroke play with a two-shot lead and extended that to five with a 68 to take top-seeding into the six-hole knockout on Sunday.
The top eight players after 54 holes sealed themselves a bye into the last 16 on the final day, with the next 16 taking each other on in the first round of the innovative new match play finish.
South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen won in Perth last year over 72 holes of stroke play and he fired a 67 to finish in the group at 12 under alongside Australians Adam Blyth, Lucas Herbert, Steven Jeffress and Jason Scrivener, and Canadian Austin Connelly.
Australia's Jake Higginbottom took the final seeded spot on count back courtesy of a closing 66 that got him to 11 under.
Rumford lost his playing privileges last season but he has looked like the player who won five European Tour titles this week, with impressive crowds out to cheer on the Perth native.
He bogeyed the first and although he picked that shot back up on the sixth, a double-bogey on the next left him in danger of dropping out of the top eight.
Back-to-back birdies on the ninth and tenth steadied the ship and four birdies in five holes from the 13th - sealed with a huge putt on the penultimate hole - cemented his dominance.
"I've just qualified through the top eight but, still, you've got to go out making birdies on the golf course," he said. "It gives up plenty of birdies so it's going to be really exciting.
You should see a bit more animation from the players. You'd fear every opponent in this kind of format - Brett Rumford
"As I've said all week, you should see a bit more animation from the players. You'd fear every opponent in this kind of format.
"I've just got to keep working on what I'm working on and take the confidence and draw on the confidence from playing some really solid rounds of golf."
Oosthuizen had been playing steadily all week and that continued with birdies on the sixth and tenth before he holed from the fairway on the 13th for a spectacular eagle. Another birdie on the 15th got him to 12 under.
"Match play is a different ball game," he said. "Your opponent can start really fast off and you can be in trouble. So it's all on how your opponent is also going to play. So it will be a bit of a different mindset starting out tomorrow.
"I think from the first hole it will be like playing the last hole of a tournament. You need to focus pretty hard to get off to a quick start because it's only six holes but it should be fun to see how it plays out.
"I don't think I'll be nervous but, you know, I think it's more just seeing how everything's going to play out and knowing that it can be a very quick Sunday or it can be a long day."
Scrivener and Connelly were the big movers into the top eight, both firing bogey-free rounds of 66.
The 2014 and 2015 Challenge Tour graduate had gains on the fifth, ninth, 11th, 12th, 15th and 17th, while Connelly picked up shots on the fourth, sixth, ninth, tenth, 11th and 15th.
Blyth had six birdies and two bogeys on his card in a 68, while Herbert's 67 was a roller coaster with an eagle and five birdies blemished by two double-bogeys.
Jeffress had four birdies and two bogeys in a closing 70, with Higginbottom making gains on the first, seventh, 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th in a 66.
Fellow Australians David Bransdon and Daniel Fox, Belgian Thomas Detry, England's Ryan Evans and American Johannes Veerman also finished at 11 under, a shot clear of Australian Nick Cullen and Japan's Hideto Tanihara.
Australians Adam Bland and Wade Ormsby, Spaniard Pep Angles and American Casey O'Toole then all went through at nine under,with the final five places going to Sam Brazel, Jeev Milkha Singh, Matthew Millar, Duncan Stewart and Phachara Khongwatmai after an an eight-man play-off.
