Scots title bid gathers pace as duo reach quarter-finals

Michael Stewart and Greg Paterson may have harboured different expectations coming into this week's Amateur Championship but the Scottish duo both find themselves in today's quarter-finals at Hillside.

Stewart, the 21-year-old from Troon Welbeck, eased to a 4 and 3 victory over Brazils' Daniel Stapff in the morning's second round before edging out Phillipp Fendt of Austria by two holes in the last 16.

His countryman Paterson, the 24-year-old St Andrews New member, overcame Welsh Youths' champion Ben Stow 5 and 4 before his gathering momentum carried him to a 7 and 6 victory over Jack Bartlett.

For Scottish champion Stewart, a place in these latter stages of the event was very much part of the pre-tournament plan. Paterson, meanwhile, arrived in Southport with a more modest outlook having never won a matchplay tie in his two previous Amateur Championship campaigns.

"You don't enter an event unless you want to win and I'm here to win," said Stewart, who now faces the highly-rated St Andrews Links Trophy winner Tom Lewis, a player the Ayrshireman beat in last year's Home Internationals "Everybody here wants to win but you just have to want it that little bit more. I've got the belief and I'm ecstatic that I'm in the quarter-finals."

Paterson, this season's Craigmillar Park Open winner, added: "In a field as good as this, I wasn't really expecting to come here and win it. Having never won a first round tie before I suppose getting past that stage would've made it quite a good week for me. But now that I've got this far, I want to keep going."

During a productive day for the Scots pair, Stewart sealed his last-eight berth with a hard-earned win over Fendt and, despite never being down in the match, he still had to go the full distance against a plucky opponent. Holding a slender one-hole advantage playing the 18th, last year's SGU No 1 was handed the tie when the Austrian dumped his approach to the green into heavy rough and was forced to take a drop before finally conceding with Stewart safely on the putting surface in two.

Paterson, who lost the opening hole of his duel with Bartlett, swiftly restored parity with a birdie putt of six feet at the fourth and, having won the fourth and fifth with pars, he romped away to a commanding victory as his title challenge gathered pace.

Paterson will now face the current Welsh champion, and the No 2 seed, Alastair Jones of Radyr.