And the Canadian now faces a nervous afternoon wait as he watches other players finish in windy conditions at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, hoping his five-under-par total is good enough to secure a spot in the top-24 that will battle out the match play section of the tournament on Sunday.

Connelly has a good record in Perth, and despite a scoring error that had him inside the top-24 cutline on the leaderboards as he played the 18thhole and some ill health he was confident he would at least have a chance in a playoff to earn a match play berth.

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“I knew where I was, quite honestly the scores today are better than I expected,” Connelly said. “It’s very windy out there, some of the pins are tough to get to. Guys are playing really well. I kind of thought starting the day seeing the weather forecast, five-under would probably have a chance to get in, or just in a playoff. But it looks like there could be a big playoff at five, or might not have that chance.

“I finished here in strokeplay two years ago, I’ve been playing really well. I played poorly last year, actually I’ve been battling some illness. I’ve had the flu the last couple of days, I have a tissue box hanging out the side of my bag. Every time I went to hit a putt, my nose would start running, it was miserable.”

Acknowledging some frustration that more putts didn’t drop on Saturday, Connelly immediately headed to the Players’ Lounge to watch the action unfold and hope he earns a chance to play the 90-metre knockout hole.

“I’m going to try and sit around relax. I got about two hours of sleep last night feeling miserable.

“I have never hit a shot from that playoff hole tee, but I’ve watched the hole played a lot of times.”