Brian Burt, a sophomore-to-be with the Eastern Michigan golf team, advanced through two rounds of match play to be among the 16 finalists at the 101st annual Michigan Amateur.

Burt, a Dimondale native, finished tied for 25th after two rounds of stroke play at the North Course at Oakland Hills Country Club. He beat Kyle Rhodes of Plymouth, 1-up, on Wednesday morning and Bill Zystra of Dearborn Heights, 2&1, later in the day.

“I’ve been hitting the ball really well the past few days," Burt said. "And then (Wednesday) I finally started sinking some putts. The longer I play, the better I seem to play.”

Three Washtenaw County residents won their opening matches Wednesday but were eliminated from the tournament in afternoon rounds.

Ann Arbor's Casey Baker defeated David Vaclav of Flat Rock in 19 holes before losing to Eric Spencer of Bloomfield Hills, 4&3.

Phil Gieseker of Saline topped Greg Reynolds of Grand Blanc, 1-up, and lost to Joshua Bauer of Waterford, 5&4. Matt Paterini, a former Saline High School teammate of Gieseker beat Larry Sterling Jr. of Shelby Township, 3&2, and lost to Wesley Gates of Waterford, 2&1.

Three other locals lost their first-round matches.

Spencer Slade of Saline lost to Joshua Bauer of Waterford, 2&1. Mike Ignasiak of Saline lost to Chet VandenBerg of Martin, 3&1. Steve Fedewa of Ypsilanti lost to Jeff Champine or Rochester Hills, 4&3.

Three other Eastern Michigan golfers participated in the event. Sophomore Alex Jones won his first-round match before being eliminated in the afternoon session. Sophomore Tommy Conway and senior Casey Olsen lost first-round matches.

See complete results on the Golf Association of Michigan website.