The Scottish challenge in the Amateur Championship came to an end in the last 32 at windy Royal Aberdeen.
On a boisterous day on the north east coast, the trio of Jeff Wright, Stuart Easton and Sandy Scott had their ambitions blown away amid the sweeping gusts in the Granite City.
Forres man Wright was left counting the cost of a bogey on the 17th as he lost a nip-and-tuck encounter with Englishman Thomas Sloman by one hole. There would be more to come from Sloman later in the day.
Irvine’s Stuart Easton, meanwhile, had been looking good for a place in the last 16 having forged a three hole lead with seven to play against Mitch Waite.
In the conditions, though, a healthy advantage was still fragile and Easton made bogeys at 12 and 13, a double bogey at 14 and another bogey at 15 to find himself one down.
The sparring duo halved the last hole in double-bogeys as the Ayrshireman went out in a disappointing fashion.
Nairn’s Sandy Scott, the former Scottish Boys’ Strokeplay champion, also exited in the morning matches after a 3&1 defeat to Raul Pereda of Mexico ended home interest in the unpaid game’s blue riband event
In the afternoon’s tussles, the aforementioned Sloman upped the ante in his title tilt with an impressive win over Wilco Nienaber, the No 1 seed from South Africa.
Nienaber had wooed those looking on with his powerful, poised display in the strokeplay qualifying phase but his bid to become only the second South African, after Bobby Cole in 1966, to win the Amateur Championship was thwarted by Sloman.
A closely fought duel, in which there was never more than one hole in it, was decided on the very last green.
Sloman made a match-winning par while his opponent slipped to a damaging bogey.
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