Sydney’s Cam Davis showed he’s a man on the rise today with a gritty round of 32 victory over Taylor Macdonald at the Australian Amateur Championship.
Davis, a Golf Australia national squad player, was 3-down through 10 holes, but hit back on the back nine to hit the front with a string of birdies.
And despite great pressure from the big Queenslander, Davis hung on for a 1-up victory to press into the last 16.
It was a great morning for New Zealand with no fewer than four Kiwis advancing in style.
Ryan Chisnall was super impressive in pounding in-form Queenslander Mitchell Smith 5-&-3, while his compatriot Tyler Hodge did a similar hatchet job on Frazer Droop, winning 5-&-4.
Keeping the New Zealanders rolling were Jason Gulasekharam (1-up over Korean Sun-Jay Im), and defending champ Tae Koh toppling England’s Paul Howard 1-up.
Some on the other side of the Tasman were still claiming Jack Sullivan, who, while representing Golf Queensland, grew up on the North Island.
Sullivan, too, was impressive in winning 4-&-3 over Northern Territorian William Hetherington, who sadly played slightly hobbled after injuring his shoulder at the beach on Thursday evening.
Victoria will be well represented, too, with Ryan Ruffels a 2-&-1 winner over Singapore’s Gregory Foo, while Torquay Sands member Ben Eccles beat fellow Victorian David Micheluzzi 1-up.
But in a shock result, Bendigo’s Lucas Herbert was beaten 2-&-1 by Japan’s Naoyuki Kataoka, who advanced on Thursday with victory on the 21st hole, but was much slicker today.
Justin Warren beat Harrison Endycott 1-up, while their fellow New South Welshman Brayden Petersen hammered West Australian 6-&-4.
Jake McLeod ended Alex Henderson’s hopes with a 3-&-1 victory, but his fellow Queenslander Douglas Klein couldn’t quite complete a huge rally and lost 1-down to Briton Richard Wale.
Both men’s and women’s round of 16 matches are on course this afternoon.
Live scores: http://www.golf.org.au/australian-amateur