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Marathon man Minami Inoue survived a quarter-final scare and then claimed a semi-final scalp to book his place in the 36-hole final of the Pampling Plate Match Play at Caboolture Golf Club.
The City Golf Club Associate will face off against Justin Morley from Southport Golf Club on Thursday after both won their semi-final matches 2&1 on Wednesday afternoon.
On the back of eight extra holes in his Round of 16 match that went late into Tuesday, Inoue looked like joining a host of other top feeds to have fallen when he trailed 3 down against Caerwyn Ross with just six holes to play.
Starting with winning the 13th hole, Inoue completed an unlikely comeback when he won the 15th, 16th and 18th holes to advance to the semi-finals.
It was there that he met Jordan Rooke, winning three holes straight from the ninth hole to seal a 2&1 win in a match in which he never trailed.
“I was honestly thinking that I lost. I was like, I’m done,” said Inoue, who credited fellow Associate Jayke Merrell who was on the bag for turning his fortunes around.
“I wasn’t going to be sad about it, but then, yeah, for some reason he (Merrell) put another gear into me so it was good.”
The match against Rooke was absorbing from the outset.
Rooke twice fought back to square the match and pushed Inoue all the way to the 17th hole, Inoue winning the penultimate hole to claim victory.
“Rooke is such a nice bloke,” Inoue added.
“I hated saying, ‘Oh, you got to putt that from four feet.’ I hated saying that, but we both played amazing.”
While Inoue has played 97 holes in three days to make the final, Morley has played 107, including two extra holes in the opening round of match play on Tuesday.
His quarter-final match against Garry Kissick was all square through 10 holes before Morley won three holes in succession on his way to a 3&2 win.
Against Jordy McGarry in the semi-final, Morley won the second hole yet, like the other semi-final, McGarry twice squared the match.
It was all square through 12 holes until Morley won the 13th and 15th holes and then halved the 16th and 17th holes to book his place in Thursday’s final.
The 36-hole final will tee off at 7:20am with the 18-hole third-place playoff between McGarry and Rooke to tee off at 11:30am.
