What always threatened to be a tricky obstacle for Lewis Marley to overcome in the second round of his title defence proved to be his downfall as CJ Elmy withstood a fightback from the trophy holder to book his place in Thursday's quarter-finals.
He did so with the help of the shot of the night as he sensationally holed out from 101 yards for a brilliant eagle on the 15th, which doubled his advantage over Marley at that stage with the champion having just missed the chance to draw level on the previous green.
Marley hit a fine approach himself to the front pin position on the 15th to give himself a good look at birdie, but he never got the chance to make his attempt for a three and he had already made his way to green-side by the time Elmy took dead aim with a 50-degree wedge and hit the bullseye, the ball landing softly just in front of the cup before trickling into it.
From his position back down the hill on the right-hand side of the fairway, Elmy was oblivious to the fact that he had made a stunning two, though he later admitted that by the crowd’s reaction he knew it must have been close.
Marley was not about to let that be the decisive blow and his response was to hit a cracking drive to just short of the 16th green, which set up a birdie that halved the deficit.
He followed that with a similar tee shot on 17 while Elmy took the more conservative route via the dogleg, but he put his second to 16ft to pile pressure on Marley who rammed his first putt 20ft past the hole.
His birdie attempt failed to drop, giving Elmy the chance to sew up the match and he did so with a perfect dead-weight putt.
He will now face Jayden Tucknott, who was a comfortable winner over Ave Thompson.
The other quarter-final in the top half of the draw will see Island captain Dave Jeffery take on multiple winner Danny Blondel.
In the clash of two former champions, Jeremy Nicolle overcame Jack Mitchell to set up a meeting with another in Jamie Blondel while Roland Mills edged out Charlie Bowen in a battle of Tuesday’s comeback kings and will now face Rory McKenna, who saw off stubborn resistance from Daniel Griggs.
Island Men’s Championship
Second round results
J Blondel beat H Bushby 7 & 6; J Nicolle beat J Mitchell 4 & 3; R Mills beat C Bowen 2 & 1; R McKenna beat D Griggs 2 & 1; D Blondel beat A Orme 6 & 5; D Jeffery beat A Eggo 3 & 2; J Tucknott beat A Thompson 5 & 3; C Elmy beat L Marley 2 & 1.
Today’s quarter-finals from 4.30pm
Elmy v Tucknott; Jeffery v D Blondel; McKenna v Mills; Nicolle v J Blondel.
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