ST. LOUIS — Brad Nurski misplaced his driver during his morning match at the 101st Missouri Amateur Championship against St. Louis’ Darren Lundgren, then responded with his best golf of the week while his caddie looked for it.

Needing a win in the afternoon to reach the match play quarterfinals for the first time, Nurski was glad to have it back. Nurski won both of his match-play tilts Friday at WingHaven Country Club, the second a 19-hole victory against Mitchell Gregson of Waterloo, Ill.

On the first playoff hole against Gregson, Nurski blistered his drive down the fairway and put the pressure on Gregson, a golfer at Kansas State. Nurski eventually two-putted for par, while Gregson three-putted the win to Nurski.

“I had my driver in my hand, and that’s my baby,” Nurski said. “I smoked it down the middle.

“I hammered it; it was perfect.”

But Nurski played the part of irresponsible parent against Lundgren.

Nurski lost his driver while playing No. 9. After hitting into the rough, Nurski leaned his driver up against the cart, while he and caddie Doug Flowers searched for the ball.

After locating the errant shot, Nurski played his approach from well in front of the cart’s location. Meanwhile, Flowers went back and drove off without seeing the driver, leaving the club behind.

Nurski and Lundgren remained tied after the ninth hole, but Nurski couldn’t find his driver for the 10th.

“What an idiot,” Flowers joked. “It’s one more step to put the driver in the bag than putting it next to the cart.”

Flowers went back looking for the club, and Nurski made due with a 3-wood. He birdied five of the next six holes, including three he played with the driver’s location still a mystery.

Even after it returned to the bag, he left it there before closing out the 3 and 2 victory at the 16th.

“It was obviously the best I’ve played this week thus far,” Nurski said. “And that’s obviously what you have to do to win some stuff around here, make some birdies.”

Against Gregson, Nurski went two down after 11 holes but won 12, 13 and 15 to rally to a lead. Gregson tied the matchup at 17 after a Nurski bogey, and the St. Joseph native hit his drive right and into a thick lie in the rough on 18.

Nurski chunked his second and was forced to scramble. But he sank a 7-foot bender for par that kept the match square and sent it into extra holes.

“I made probably one of the greatest up and downs of my life,” Nurski said of the par.

On the playoff hole, Nurski’s long drive and tight approach forced Gregson to try and make his birdie putt. But he missed the birdie try and the par putt coming back, helping keep Nurski alive in his favorite tournament of the year.

Nurski advances to play in today’s quarterfinal round against the tournament’s top seed, current Georgia Southern golfer Drew Lethem of Overland Park, Kan. The match tees off at 7:30 a.m.

“That’s a big accomplishment for me,” said Nurski, who previously reached the round of 16 but never won that match. “My match this afternoon, I don’t know if I’ve ever played that good under pressure in my life.”

Andrew Hatten, a 2000 Cameron graduate, also plays in today’s quarterfinal round after two more match-play victories.

Hatten topped University of Michigan golfer Ross Millman in the morning 1 up to reach the round of 16, then led his entire match with Todd Obergoenner of Cape Girardeau. Obergoenner, a redshirt-freshman golfer at the University of Kentucky, fell behind one to Hatten after six, and Hatten extended that to two after nine.

That lead remained after 12 and 14, eventually holding on for a 2-and-1 win.

Hatten tees off against former Missouri State golfer Matt Sullivan today at 7:54 a.m. Winners in the quarterfinals advance to the afternoon semifinal round. The championship, a 36-hole competition, starts Sunday.

Assistant sports editor Ross Martin can be reached at rossmartin@npgco.com