Second Chance All Wi Needs to Charge Into Quarterfinals : Golf: Westlake High graduate, who won late entry into California Amateur championship, advances with Van Nuys’ Steinberg and Oxnard’s Stankowski.

Charlie Wi, an 18-year-old from Thousand Oaks who missed qualifying for the 79th California Amateur golf championship by one stroke and only sneaked into the event when another player withdrew, crashed his way into the quarterfinals of the tournament with a pair of match-play victories Wednesday at Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula.

Wi, who graduated from Westlake High this month, joined Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys and Paul Stankowski of Oxnard in the eight-man field remaining from the starting field of 102 of the state’s best amateur golfers.

Wi qualified for match play by coming back with a blistering 68--the second-lowest score in the tournament--Tuesday after struggling to a 75 in Monday’s opening round. He finished as the No. 3 qualifier, a stroke behind Stankowski and Mark Johnson of Barstow.

On Wednesday morning, Wi defeated Mitch Harrison of Campo, 1-up, in the first round of match play. In the afternoon, he beat Randy Bridge of Hollister by the same score.

Wi nearly didn’t make the tournament at all. On May 16, he was forced into a 13-man playoff for the final tournament berth during qualifying at the Los Serranos Country Club in Chino. He parred the first playoff hole and birdied the second, leaving him and Ray Navis of Solana Beach to battle for the last position.

And on the fourth hole, Navis sank a long birdie putt to defeat Wi. He became the first alternate for the state tournament, an event noted for having few withdrawals.

But just a week before the tournament began, Phil Mickelson of Arizona State, who had received an exemption into the state amateur because he won the NCAA championship, withdrew so he could attend a collegiate awards banquet in New York.

Steinberg, 32, an optometrist who made it to the quarterfinals in 1988 and 1989 and to the semifinals in 1982, returned to the quarterfinals by defeating Ducky O’Toole of Carmel, 3 and 2, in the morning’s opening round of match play and then beating Javier Sanchez of Redwood City in the second round, 5 and 3.

Stankowski defeated defending champion Casey Boyns of Pacific Grove, 4 and 3, in the opening round of match play and defeated Dave Berganio Jr. of Granada Hills in the second round. Stankowski, a Texas El Paso student, tied for top stroke-play honors, firing a 73 Monday and a 69 Tuesday for a 142 to lead the field of 32 golfers into match play. Days before the tournament began, he predicted he would win.

“I wouldn’t play at all if I didn’t think I had a chance to be around on the final day to win it,” he said.

Stankowski never had played in the state amateur because his collegiate tournaments prevented him from entering the state tournament qualifying events. But his victory last summer in the Southern California Amateur Championship brought an automatic exemption into the 1990 state amateur.

In first-round match play Wednesday morning, George Gottschalk of Lancaster was defeated, 4 and 2, by Ron Ewing of Merced; Chris Zambri of Thousand Oaks lost to Ben Furth of San Francisco, 3 and 2; and Paul Holtby of Simi Valley lost on the 21st hole to Sandy Galbraith of Fountain Valley. Galbraith, 44, was the tournament runner-up in 1971.

Gottschalk, 34, was playing in the state amateur for the second time. Last year he did not advance past the first two rounds of stroke play.

Holtby, 23, a four-year player at Simi Valley High and at UC Santa Barbara, said the state tournament was his last event as an amateur. He plans to turn pro July 1.

Chris Etue of Thousand Oaks shot rounds of 75 and 79 and missed the match-play cut by two strokes. Kevin Eden of Granada Hills also missed the cut by two strokes after rounds of 81 and 73. And Jim Netto of Glendale (81, 77) missed the cut by six shots.