Brian McElhinney took another huge step nearer to becoming the second Irishman in four years to win the British Amateur championship after easing into the final at Royal Birkdale yesterday.
The 22-year-old from the North West club in Buncrana, Co Donegal, the reigning Irish Amateur champion, beat Lytham Trophy winner Gary Lockerbie 2 and 1 in the morning's last-eight encounters, before edging out 16-year-old English prodigy Oliver Fisher by one hole in the semi-finals.
McElhinney, aiming to emulate the 2001 success of his fellow Ulsterman Michael Hoey, now faces a 36-hole joust with Scotland's John Gallagher with the winner securing a place in July's British Open Championship at St Andrews as well as a tee-time for next year's US Masters at Augusta.
"It's feels great to be in the final," said McElhinney, a former European Amateur champion. "I've said it before but I didn't expect this coming into the event.
"I've showed no form at all this year, but this week it has come good. My short game has been excellent and that has done it for me here. My play around the greens and my putting has been crucial, and if you can do that well in matchplay then you will always have a chance.
"It's been a long, tiring week. It's been a real mental test more than anything, and I just have to keep it going for two more rounds."
McElhinney's final opponent, Gallagher, continued to rip up the form book and the coaching manual as he beat countryman Lloyd Saltman, the Brabazon and St Andrews Links Trophy winner, by one hole in the semi-finals.
Gallagher plays cack-handed, left-below-right, and while his style may appal the purists it has proved mightily effective on the Lancashire coast this week.
Saltman had thwarted the ambitions of Ireland's other remaining hope, Darren Crowe of Dunmurry.
In a closely fought last-eight joust with Saltman, in which the pair exchanged the lead several times, Crowe crucially fell behind to a par at the 16th. Still trailing by a hole playing the 18th, Crowe's approach to the green landed almost 30 feet from the flag while Saltman cushioned his second to within five feet.
Needing to hole his putt to maintain any hope of forcing extra-holes, Crowe's raking effort trundled up inches short and the Ulsterman conceded the hole and the match to Saltman.
As for Gallagher, the thought of lining up alongside Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and the rest at St Andrews and Augusta had him saying: "Scary, isn't it?"
Gallagher has always played 'cack-handed'. "I just picked it up like that," he said. "When I joined a club people told me I'd only get better if I changed, but I've always kept improving, so I never have."
By 17 he was down to a scratch handicap, he now plays off plus-two.
"I've never had any coaching and there might be better golfers than me, but it's about getting the ball in the hole. "
Gallagher gave up his greenkeeping job two years ago to play full-time, but that was just to see whether he could earn a Scotland cap. He has no intention "whatsoever" of turning professional.
"This is a boy's dream," he added. "I watched the end of the Masters and didn't think for a moment I might be there next year."
McElhinney played with Jim Furyk and Fredrik Jacobson at Royal Troon last year, but had two rounds of 76 and missed the halfway cut by seven shots.
He came to Birkdale thinking he might have to win to be part of the Walker Cup in August.
Putting will be vital in Chicago and it was that part of his game which took him through against Fisher. He made two early 30-footers, and, after being pulled back to level, converted birdie chances from 20 and 14 feet at the 15th and 16th.
