Zack Swanwick and Josh Bai through to Round of 32 at US Am

Zackary Swanwick in action during today’s Round of 64 match – image Ishika Samant, USGA

New Zealanders Zackary Swanwick and Josh Bai have advanced to the second round of matchplay at the US Amateur Championship at the Merion Golf Club in Philadelphia.

Swanwick, who qualified as the 18th-ranked player after 36 holes of strokeplay, defeated Queensland-born, West Australian-raised, but now American 21-year-old Josiah Gilbert in a low-scoring match where Swanwick played eight holes in the middle of his round in 8 under par to lead 3 up through 13, over Gilbert, who was doing all he could to keep up.

Gilbert birdied the 14th to reduce the deficit to 2 with three to play, but Swanwick birdied the 16th, the match finishing with a 3&2 margin to the man from Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand’s North Island.

Earlier in the day, Auckland’s Josh Bai advanced from a playoff between 16 players for the eleven remaining places in the matchplay field of 64 when he birdied the very first hole, surviving such a playoff for the second straight year, the first to accomplish such a feat since Matthew Swan in 2005-06.

Bai then took on England’s Walker Cup player, Eliot Baker, in his opening round, the match being very much in the balance until the New Zealander birdied the 10th and 12th holes to take a 2-up lead which he extended to three at the 15th and eventually won 3&1.

In tomorrow’s round of 32, Swanwick will take on the 15th qualifier Jay Leng Jr of California, who recently won the Western Amateur Championship, while Bai tackles the 23rd qualifier Rudy Sautron of France.

Should both Swanwick and Bai progress to the latter stages of the event, they are scheduled to clash in the quarter-finals as they look to become just the second New Zealander, following Danny Lee’s win in 2008, to claim men’s amateur golf’s most significant title.

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