Both Knox and Morley finished outside the top eight Associates who received a first round bye on Tuesday morning so endured a gruelling day before booking their place in the quarter-finals on Wednesday morning.

Knox accounted for Jordan Hampson 5&4 in Round 1 as Morley recorded a dominant 7&6 win over Ben Scholl.

The afternoon matches would go beyond the 18 regulation holes as Damon Stephenson and James Bonnor pushed their opponents all the way.

Knox would ultimately get the better of Stephenson on the second extra hole while Morley was forced to a third extra hole before finally accounting for Bonnor.

For Knox, he needed to birdie both the 19th and 20th holes to get beyond Queensland’s No.1-ranked Associate and into the final eight.

“That was pretty full-on,” said Knox, the 2023 runner-up.

“Twenty holes, pretty knackered. I pulled a LAB putter out of the boot of my mate’s car this morning and just put it straight into play. I don’t think I’m ever taking it out now.

“Putting was really solid. I knew I had to put it close playing against Damon so I’m pretty proud of myself that I held on there.”

Morley’s victory over Bonnor was even more miraculous given he was 3-down with just four holes to play and facing an early exit.

“What a marathon that was,” Morley said.

“I hadn’t really had anything drop all day so was just hanging in there and playing steady.

“I made an awesome putt for birdie on 15, the par 5, which got me back to 1-down. Made a really good par on 17 to get back to square and then on 18 missed a seven-footer to win it and then went to extra holes.

“James was in really close on the 19th but I managed to finally get one to drop from about 25-30 feet which was huge. I needed that more than anything.”

The extra-time thrillers were just two of four matches that went the distance on Tuesday afternoon.

All four featured a standard of golf worthy of a final but it was Jack Wright and Ben Hollis who joined Knox and Morley in the quarter-finals.

Wright edged Jordan Rooke 1 up while Hollis won the final hole to complete a 2 up win over Adam Teale.

Joining those four in the quarter-finals are the No.1 qualifier from Monday’s strokeplay, Conor Whitelock, Zach Ion, Campbell Jones and Reilly Wunderlich.

Following a bye in Round 1, Whitelock defeated Rylee Johnson 4&2, Ion defeated Stacey Edwards 6&5, Jones advanced with a 5&4 win over Jaime Lansi and Wunderlich completed a 3&2 win over Josh Holbrook.

Round 1 and 2 results

Quarter-final draw

6:40am            Dylan Knox v Campbell Jones

6:47am            Zach Ion v Jack Wright

6:54am            Ben Hollis v Reilly Wunderlich

7:01am            Justin Morley v Conor Whitelock