CEBUANO golfer Wei Wei Gao advanced to the quarterfinals of the US Junior Amateur Match Play at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee on Thursday.
Gao kept the momentum of his 3&2 triumph over Brendan Hansen of the US in the first round of the knockout phase and racked up two wins in the grueling day to reach the Last 8 phase of the annual event featuring the world’s top junior players.
The 16-year-old Cebuano ace from the Alta Visa Golf and Country Club, who placed seventh in the 36-hole stroke play elimination round, broke away from an all-square match with Joseph Chun after 12 holes as he pounced on the Korean’s bogey, double-bogey and bogey mishaps in the next three to go 3-up then matched his rival’s par on No. 16 for a 3&2 victory in their morning duel in the Last 32.
He sustained his form in his afternoon match with American Austin Eckroat, taking three of the first eight holes on pars to wrest control.
Playing in a tournament of this magnitude for the first time, he yielded No. 11 but won Nos. 13 and 15 to fashion out a 4&3 win for a spot in the quarterfinal round.
Gao, who aced No. 3 with a 4-iron in the first round of the stroke play qualifier, will next face second seed Eugene Hong of Florida, who needed 23 holes to foil local bet Davis Shore in the Last 32 then routed Austin Coggin of Alabama, 5&4.