Stewart breezes into Amateur final

Michael Stewart stands on the brink of a remarkable quartet of matchplay titles after powering into the final of the Amateur Championship at Hillside.

The Troon Welbeck youngster harnessed the blustery conditions superbly in Southport yesterday and beat highly-rated Englishman Tom Lewis 4 and 3 in the quarter-finals before marching on with a dominant 5 and 4 defeat of France's Sebastien Gros in the last four.

Stewart will now face a 36-hole duel with Australia's Bryden Macpherson, who scuppered hopes of a first all-Scottish final since Freddie Tait met Samuel Fergusson in 1898, with a 4 and 3 win over Greg Paterson.

Having won the Scottish Boys' matchplay title in 2008, Stewart's pedigree in the one-on-one format has been bolstered by success in the 2010 Scottish Amateur championship and the South African Open in March.

Victory today would see him become the first Scot to hold both the Scottish and British crowns since the celebrated Hector Thomson plundered the pair in 1935 and 1936. There is also the small matter of the prospect of a place in July's Open and next year's Masters to think about, although Stewart insists he won't let a major distraction affect his bid for glory.

"I'm just going to put all of that to the back of my mind," said Stewart, who made just three bogeys in 29 holes of a testing day. "I know how close I am to two majors but I'll step out onto that first tee and it won't be in my thoughts. Getting to the final is what I came here to do and to win four major matchplay titles would be amazing. This would be the big one for me."

Paterson, who beat Welsh champion Alastair Jones in the morning, finally had his spirited challenge thwarted in the last four by Macpherson, who stayed on course to become the first Aussie winner since Doug Bachli in 1954.

"I didn't really do myself justice in the afternoon but on the whole it has been a great week for me and getting to this stage was unexpected," he said.

With a name like Macpherson, the former Australian strokeplay champion was subject to the Scottish press corps' inevitable guddle for a tartan tag but the 20-year-old gave little away.

"There must be some Scottish connection but nothing that I'm really aware of," groaned Macpherson.