Of the 288 players who started The Amateur Championship, only eight remain and one of them is Australia's Billy Dowling.

Two match play wins on Thursday moved the 20-year-old Queenslander into the quarter-finals and a showdown with Italy's Riccardo Fantinelli at Royal St George's in England.

It was another Italian, Filippo Ponzano, who was Dowling's second victim of the day, the Australian trailing early before securing a 3&2 victory.

In the round of 32, Dowling despatched Mexico's Rodrigo Vasquez 5&3.

"I feel great. I played really well today, both in the first match and then this afternoon," Dowling said.

"I don't think I did too much wrong, to be honest. I stuck to my game plan the whole day and I'm just happy it paid off.

“My caddie really kept me level-headed the whole way, just one shot at a time, one hole at a time. I never got too ahead of myself if I was up, and if I was down, I just held in there and I just felt like it was a good game plan."

Dowling is attempting to become the first Australian winner of the title since Bryden Macpherson in 2011 and is the lone Aussie left in the draw after Kayun Mudadana (NSW) was eliminated in round two of the match play competition.

“I think (winning) crosses the mind here and there, but at the same time I've still got a job to do," Dowling said.

"I'm just taking it one opponent at a time because anything can happen in match play, so there's no point really getting ahead of yourself and thinking about what could be.”

The Amateur Championship, first hosted at Hoylake in 1885, boasts an impressive list of former champions including Sir Michael Bonallack, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia and more recently, Aldrich Potgieter.

The winner of this year’s Championship gains entry to The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush, the US Open and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Masters Tournament. In addition to three major championships, they also earn a place in the field at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo on the DP World Tour.

The R&A will provide live broadcast coverage of the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Friday and the 36-hole Final on Saturday.

Fans in the UK can watch all the action live on Sky Sports, while livestreams are available globally on R&A TV and on The R&A’s YouTube channel.