Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco and Devon Bling of Ridgecrest are the last two Californians standing heading to the quarterfinals of the 188th United States Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The 29th seeded Salinda (pictured), the 2018 Pacific Coast Amateur champion who is a senior at Stanford, defeated No. 13 Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, 1 up, with a birdie on the 18th hole in the round of 16, after trouncing No. 61 Trevor Phillips of Inman, S.C., 5 and 4, in the round of 32 during the morning round.
Salinda was medalist in U.S. Amateur qualifying and also captured the 2017 Northern California Amateur Championship and the 2016 San Jose City Championship.
No. 41 Bling, a sophomore at UCLA who won the 2018 Jackrabbit Invitational for his first college victory, built a 3-up lead but needed 20 holes to turn back No. 8 Noah Goodwin of Corinth, Texas, in the afternoon after ousting No. 9 Shintaro Ban of San Jose and UNLV in the morning, 2 up.
No. 2 Cole Hammer of Houston is the highest-seeded player remaining in the tournament after claiming a 2-and-1 victory over No. 50 Zach Murray of Australia in the round of 16 and slipping past Joshua McCarthy of Danville, 1 up, by winning the 15th and 16th holes with pars.
Top-seeded Daniel Hillier of New Zealand was ousted by Davis Riley of Hattiesburg, Miss., 5 and 4, during the round of 32, and Riley moved into the quarterfinals by downing Mason Overstreet of Kingfisher, Okla., on the 21st hole.
Also advancing to the quarterfinals were No. 5 Will Gordon of Davidson, N.C., who beat No. 63 William Mouw of Chino, 2 up, in the round of 16 after getting by No. 28 Zheng Kai Bai of China, 3 and 2, and No. 58 Alex Fitzpatrick of England, who needed 19 holes to beat No. 42 McClure Meissner of San Antonio, after defeated Jon Augenstein of Owensboro, Ky., 2 and 1, in the round of 32.
No. 14 Austin Squires of Union, Ky., got past No. 3 Andrew Alligood of St. John’s, Fla., 1 up, with a birdie on the 18th hole after needing 19 holes to escape No. 46 Luis Gagne of Costa Rica, and No. 27 Viktor Hovland of Norway trounced countryman Kristoffer Reitan, 7 and 6, in the afternoon after claiming a 2-and-1 victory over No. 59 Harrison Ott of Brookfield, Wis., in the morning.
In the quarterfinals, Riley will face Bling; Salinda will meet Gordon; Hammer will square off with Fitzpatrick, and Squires will take on Hovland.
For complete results and pairings, visit http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2018/u-s–amateur.html#!scoring
