Brent McEwan meets Andrew Hobbs (both St Clair) in one semifinal, while Cody Harper (Invercargill) will play Scott Hellier (Gore) on the other side of the draw.
The star of the event after the first two days is Otago No 1 McEwan, who began by qualifying in top place on Saturday with 70 and 75 to win the Ritchie Cup.
McEwan was in command but with three bogeys and one triple-bogey on his final nine almost tied for the honour with four other players.
When the matchplay began yesterday, McEwan was at his best turning four-under-par on his way to beating Jason Pegler (St Clair) by an impressive 8 and 6 margin.
There was no letup in the afternoon when McEwan again turned four-under, beating Otago triallist Luke Murdoch (Otago) by 7 and 5.
But he is unlikely to repeat this margin when he meets hard-nosed St Clair greenkeeper Hobbs, who beat another Otago team member, Chris Snow (St Clair), in 16 holes yesterday morning.
This put Hobbs up against Balmacewen record-holder Liam Balneaves (Greenacres) in the second round and he birdied the 16th and 17th holes to finish with 66 and win by 2 and 1.
Meanwhile, Harper carded a barrage of birdies which helped him beat Michael Smith (Otago) by 3 and 2 after Smith had accounted for Thomas Facer in the morning.
Scott Hellier won his semifinal berth, beating Queenstown junior Jamie Anstiss in the morning and Cameron Grant (Otago) in the afternoon.
At the conclusion of the championship today, the Otago selectors will name the eight players to compete in the South Island Interprovincial event in Invercargill in the first weekend in November.
With only the top two Otago golfers left in the championship field they will be turning their attention to Snow, Facer and Tyrone Ratahi, who are in the semifinals of the senior plate.
Snow meets Pegler, while Facer and Ratahi are pitted against each other on the other side of the draw.
