Nigel Edwards's quest for his first Amateur Championship title will have to continue past his 40th birthday as the four-times Walker Cup player was beaten at the first play-off hole of his second-round match at Turnberry yesterday morning. Yet the Welshman's experience almost earned him a win over Andrew Sullivan when he came back from three down after 15.

Sullivan, 21, was born only a year before Edwards first played in this tournament and the Nuneaton golfer admitted to being daunted by taking on one of the amateur game's “big beasts” over the Ailsa course. “Seeing who I was up against, I just wanted to try and enjoy my round,” Sullivan said.

He enjoyed it so much that, with eight pars and a birdie, he reached the turn four up. Edwards fought back with birdies at the 10th and 11th, but when Sullivan hit a three-iron to within ten feet at the 14th and then played out from a bunker to within inches of the hole at 15, he was on the brink.

Perhaps that is when realisation kicked in for the part-time shelf-stacker at Asda. On the 16th Sullivan played into the burn twice and conceded the hole; he then missed the green at the last two holes to allow Edwards to force a play-off.

How easy it would have been for the younger player to let his head fall. But after flirting with the fairway bunkers, Sullivan found the 19th green in two while Edwards's second lay plugged in the greenside sand. Two putts might have been enough for Sullivan from 30 feet, but he won with only one.

That earned the world No738 a place in the last 16 for the second year running. Steady golf on the front nine in the afternoon again helped him against Maximilian Kieffer. Four opening pars took Sullivan to two up and he ploughed ahead after the turn when the German gave him three holes in a row to set up a 5 and 3 win.

Sullivan will play Andrea Pavan, of Italy, in the quarter-finals today. The tournament favourite appears to be Jorge Campillo, the world No5 from Spain, who beat Chris Wood 5 and 4 yesterday afternoon. The Englishman, the world No7, could be excused some tiredness, having been taken to a fifth play-off hole in the morning.