US-based West Australian Karl Vilips is looking to make it back-to-back Australian victories at the North & South Amateur after claiming medal honours at Pinehurst in North Carolina.

Louis Dobbelaar, who is now a professional, triumphed in this event last year and Vilips is now in the box seat to follow suit having shot rounds of 66 on course No. 2 and 68 on course No. 4 to top the field at six-under par.

The Stanford University collegiate golfer will start the match play section as the top seed - where he will take on Japan's Leo Oyo in the round of 32 - and he is eager to best his quarter-final exit at last year's tournament.

“It’s good to win something,” said Vilips, who came runner-up at the Northeast Amateur last week. “It’s been kind of a rough couple of years, and obviously there’s a long way to go, but this feels good.

“Six shots between the first seed and the 32nd seed isn’t much. I don’t really think seeding has too much of an advantage out here, so you can’t take anything for granted. You just have to go out and play and kind of see what your opponent is going to do.”

Follow the action from the North & South Amateur here.