Mattoon’s Derek Meinhart and Windsor’s Kyle Maxwell won three of the final four holes Monday to advance into today’s quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in University Place, Washington.

The two former Eastern Illinois University golfers defeated Philip Walker and Ryan Wilkins, 2 & 1, at the Chambers Bay course. They face Tyler Anderson and Devin Johnson this morning. 

Four-ball is a better-ball format where the lowest score for each pair is used to determine each hole’s winner in a match-play scoring system. The team that wins the most holes, therefore, wins the match – and matches can sometimes end early if, say, one team leads by four holes with only three holes remaining. That score would be carded as 4 & 3.

Players and caddies search for a lost ball on the par-5 eighth hole during Monday’s Round of 32 at Chambers Bay. (Photo/Robert Beck. All rights reserved by USGA.org. No reproductions or reuse is allowed.)

Tied 3-3 after 13 holes Monday, Meinhart and Maxwell won three of the next four holes to reach the Round-of-16. The pair carded the better scores on the 447-yard par-4 No. 14 and the 248-yard par-3 No. 15 to go ahead by two holes with three to go.

Meinhart and Maxwell lost by a stroke on the short 287-yard par 4 No. 16 before carding a par on the next hole, a 184-yard par-3, to end the match with one hole remaining.

Meinhart and Maxwell captured another amateur event in 2015, winning the Champions Cup Invitational by one stroke in Houston, Texas.