Forrest and Syme through to last 8 of Aussie 

Amateur Championship

Two Scots, Grant Forrest (Craigielaw) and Drumoig's Connor Syme, have fought their way through to the last eight of the Australian men's amateur championship at the Metropolitan Golf Club,  Melbourne.
Unfortunately, Walker Cup player Forrest's progress was at the expense of fellow Scot Jack McDonald (Barassie) whom he beat by one hole in a great match. 
Syme reached the quarter-finals with a 2 and 1 win over Australian Will Heffernan.
Earlier in the day, Forrest had squeezed through at the 19th against Welshman Owen Edwards and Syme was a 4 and 3 second-round winner against Australian Perry Dylan.
Jack McDonald beat Aiden Didone of Australia by one hole to set up his third-round contest against Grant Forrest.



FROM THE AUSTRALIAN GOLF WEBSITE
Two down with three holes to play. No wonder leading qualifier Charles Pilon admits defeat did cross his weary mind.
Instead he took a bold approach with driver on the short but perilous par-four 16th and found a birdie that fuelled the momentum to surge into the Australian amateur quarter-finals.
The 17-year-old Queenslander finished birdie, birdie, par to overrun New Zealand's Luke Brown on Metropolitan's 18th green for a one-up victory in the third round.
"I'm not going to lie. I thought 'here we go, this is going to be a loss', but I made a gutsy play on 16, took driver and it paid off,'' he said.
"That worked and I rolled in a nice 20-footer on the next to get it back to square and kind of settle things. And made a nice easy par at the last.''
Brown's drive down the left side of the last fairway finished perilously close to the treeline, in a sandy lie. The approach shot found the bunker left of the green and the Kiwi left-hander left a 5m par putt just short of the cup.
He had seemed in control of the match in what Pilon described as a "huge'' battle for him to try to stay in touch.
"Going through nine, I was one down and he won the 10th and 11th. I was three down through 12 and then I got a good birdie on 14, squared 15 and then won the last three to win the match. So, it was quite a struggle, but I ended up getting it done,'' the victor said.
Pilon, originally from Wagga Wagga and now at the Hills International school on the Gold Coast, said he did feel the weight of expectations after being the medallist following the 36 holes of stroke play.
"A little bit, but I just tried to focus on my game and hole by hole in the matchplay and it seems to pretty much be working so far, so I won't change much,'' he said.
Pilon's quarter-final opponent is Welshman Evan Griffith who beat lone surviving South Korean male Sung-ho Yun 2 and 1.
NSW's Harrison Endycott was the most conclusive third round victor, always in control of 16-year-old Lawrence Ting of Taiwan to win 5 and 4.
He will next play Scotland's Connor Syme who beat Victorian Will Heffernan 2 and 1.
British amateur runner-up Grant Forrest eventually prevailed one hole after  a seesawing battle with fellow Scot Jack McDonald and his quarter-final foe is NSW's Travis Smyth after the Riversdale Cup winner beat fellow Aussie Joshua Armstrong by one hole.
Australian-born and American-raised Austin Bautista, who plays at Bonnie Doon in Sydney, holing a curling 6m birdie putt on the 18th and raised a fist in triumph after easing past Victorian Brett Coletta 1-up. He now plays Queenslander Shae Wools-Cobb who beat Royal Melbourne's Matias Sanchez 3 and 1.

Quarter-final line-up
Charles Pilon (Queensland) v Evan Griffith (Wales)
Harrison Endycott (New South Wales) v Connor Syme (Scotland)
Travis Smyth (New South Wales) v Grant Forrest (Scotland)
Austin Bautista (New South Wales) v Shae Wools-Cobb (Queensland)