Wardell will meet Queenstown's Mark Brooks while, on the other side of the draw, Masters will face Jason Osborne (Invercargill).
There will be a new Otago champion this evening, as none of the four semifinalists have previously won the event.
Otago No 1 Brent McEwan is competing in a Charles Tour event on the Harewood course in Christchurch and his absence has thrown this year's event wide open.
Wardell was at No 8 and Masters at No 6 in the Otago team which competed in the triangular event at Cromwell two weeks ago and both will be pushing for greater recognition when the eight-man team for the South Island teams event is named this week.
Wardell beat fellow Queenstown golfer Dong Young Kim in the morning and followed it up with a resounding 7 and 5 win over Kyle Dobbie (Queen's Park) in the afternoon.
Master beat Chris Timms in the morning and took a further 16 holes to down Daniel Barnett (Otago) in the quarterfinal.
Brooks accounted for Chris Snow (St Clair) in the morning and masters (over-40) representative John McIntee (Otago) in the afternoon, to get through to the penultimate round.
Osborne beat Balmacewen's Hamish Ireland yesterday morning and then accounted for Southland's top matchplay exponent, Mat Tautari, in the afternoon.
Brooks set the early pace in the tournament, winning the Ritchie Cup for the top qualifier with rounds of 76 and 68 on Saturday.
There were only four sub-par rounds on Saturday and they were all in the afternoon.
The greens had been double cut and rolled on Friday and cut and rolled on Saturday. Players had putting difficulties in the strong winds and slick surfaces in the morning round.
