#AusAm: It & # 039; s Micha magic v Crowe karma
Final: battle scores for men
Final: scores for stroke of women
It is a commonplace that at any point of the top 64 men can come great stories that qualify for the Australian Amateur competition game.
But the top and bottom of the batting order of tomorrow are the indisputable top two yarns of day two.
World 7 David Micheluzzi set a second track record in a few days to establish his authority on the national championship he so coveted and win the medal with an astonishing seven shots at 16 below.
At the other end of the day, and with the very last putt of qualifying, St Michael's younger Harrison Crowe took the 64th and last playground for the second year in a row.
Crowe was five times bigger than the tournament with five holes and thought about his flight home in Sydney.
Four hours later he had made the third and final birdie of an 11-man play-off with a curling downhill putt on the first in Woodlands to revive his campaign
"After nine holes today, I looked very ordinary (but I) had four in the last nine and had to make the last one to come into the play-off," said Crowe.
"To leave that (play-off) putt in that hill felt good.
"I just kicked it out, tried to make little birds and pushed … and it worked to my advantage.
"I have made it difficult for two years in a row, but I am still there and am still going."
Crowe knew instinctively that his exploits had set up a confrontation on Thursday morning with the Victorian powerhouse Micheluzzi.
"I know he had 16 underneath … but everything can happen in the game and I just have to play my own game and see what happens tomorrow."
Micheluzzi, on an eight-under 63 in Spring Valley on Tuesday – an amateur record of course – could not find the bottom of the cup early after hitting 10, carding seven pars to start his round.
But the 22-year-old flew on fire from the 17th, rattling an amazing seven birdies and an eagle in his next nine holes.
The low-amateur of the Australian Open-joint left with 4m on the ninth hole, his last one, for a round of 63 and held only the record of Woodlands-job, but it was not allowed
But the second straight eight-under round of the Victorian shot him down to 16 and closed a tribute to stroke.
"I felt like I had no idea what I was doing – I felt like I was still repeating," Micheluzzi joked after the round
"From the 17th to the 7th hole it felt like it took an hour and probably it took two and a half hours, it just went so fast.
"Some pictures I do not really remember, I must have been in the zone so that nothing could stop me which is pretty cool."
With Min Woo Lee who turns this week, Blake Windred has become Australia's second highest placed amateur – and he played with it on Wednesday.
The New South Welshman followed Micheluzzi in the clubhouse with a seven-under-65-many of his own to be the second on the standings at nine o'clock.
That means that the best two gentlemen from Australia will enter the competition game as the seeds No. 1 and No. 2.
Also the recruiting of beautiful 65s at Woodlands were the international duo Conor Purcell from Ireland and the Canadian Joey Savoie, leaving behind eight behind a third.
The Germans David Rauch, Michael Hirmer and Jannik De Bruyn and Kiwi Young Gun Daniel Hillier complete the top five at seven years.
A quartet Victorians, including Andre Lautee in shape, has a share of ninth in six years.
Micheluzzi's playing partner and his conqueror in last year's final, Japan's Keita Nakajima, have struck a solid three under 69 on Wednesday to keep his hope to stay alive back-to-back.
His Japanese compatriot Ren Yonezana also fired a race record of eight-under-64 and smuggled his way to the game after his five over 76 at Spring Valley yesterday.
At the end of the regulation game, 61 players automatically switched to the match-play phase at the same time, so 11 men compete for the last three spots.
Remarkably, three birdies at the first hole New South Welshmen Crowe and James Conran, plus the Japanese-based Yuji Sekito, had advanced.
Conran gets the chance to emulate his father, Steve, who has been a professional for a long time and won the Victorian Amateur of 1989 in Victoria.
The men's race Round 64 starts tomorrow in Woodlands with the first start time 07.30 hours with the ladies round 32 from 12.00.
View the full game layout here.