Brett Rumford cruised into the quarter-finals of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth as the knockout stages provided some serious drama in Western Australia.
After the field was whittled down to 24 after 54 holes of stroke play, the first two rounds of match play saw it reduced to eight, with local favourite Rumford - who had led by five shots after the stroke play stage - easing to a 2 and 1 win over Hideto Tanihara.
Louis Oosthuizen also advanced after an enthralling battle against American Johannes Veerman, while there were last-16 wins for Australians Jason Scrivener, Matthew Millar, Adam Bland, Wade Ormsby and Steven Jeffress, and Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai.
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.
Rumford and Tanihara started with a pair of pars but Rumford birdied the third from 18 feet and the fourth from five, meaning a pair of pars on the next - with the top seed almost chipping in - resulted in the first match of the day not to go the distance.
Ormsby was waiting for Rumford in the quarter-finals after a victory over Jake Higginbottom on the shoot-out hole.
A Higginbottom bogey on the second and an Ormsby bogey on the fourth resulted in the only holes not halved and the duo went par-birdie on their first trips up the extra hole with a pair of concessions following after excellent tee-shots.
Higginbottom got a plugged lie in a bunker the next time around and a concession soon followed.
Oosthuizen needed nine holes to overcome Veerman.
Both men started birdie-par-par before Oosthuizen rolled in a 15-footer on the fourth for birdie that did a full 360 before dropping. Veerman hit back with a stunning tee-shot to five feet on the next and they headed up the last which was halved in fours.
Two excellent birdies meant they headed back up the shoot-out hole, Veerman for the fifth time of the day, with two more birdies following.
Oosthuizen then put his tee-shot to tap-in range and with Veerman missing his birdie attempt, the match was won.
The South African will next face Bland, who birdied the first to go one up and his match against Adam Blyth stayed that way until the end, with both men making five consecutive pars.
Millar made short work of winning 2 and 1 in his match.
He won the second with a par and the fourth with a birdie and a pair of bogeys on the fifth saw the Australian triumph, making Canadian Austin Connelly the first of the seeds to be defeated.
Millar will next face Khongwatmai, who produced a brilliant comeback to beat Lucas Herbert on the last.
Herbert nearly drove the first to go one up with a birdie but bogeyed the third after finding a bunker off the tee to get things back to all square. Khongwatmai had some bunker trouble of his own to drop behind on the fourth but he birdied the fifth and when Herbert three-putted the last, the 17 year old was through.
He has been enjoying the 18th this week after prevailing in a dramatic play-off to claim the final spot in the Super 6 on Saturday.
Second seed Scrivener did not need six holes to beat Nick Cullen as he continued his excellent record here in Perth.
He has never finished outside of the top 30 in four European Tour events at Lake Karrinyup CC and dispatched his fellow Australian with the minimum of fuss.
He almost drove the first en route to making a birdie and a Cullen bogey on the third meant a pair of pars was enough for a 2 and 1 win.
Jeffress was next in line for Scrivener after he secured a one up win over good friend David Bransdon.
A Bransdon bogey on the second handed Jeffress the advantage and after the latter missed a ten-footer to win on the fifth, the duo halved the last.
