GOLF : 81ST CALIFORNIA AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP : Area Trio Advances to Quarterfinals : Match-Play: Berganio, Wi and Steinberg produce two victories each at troublesome Pebble Beach.

Dave Berganio Jr. of Sylmar, Charlie Wi of Thousand Oaks and Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys advanced to the quarterfinals of the 81st California Amateur golf championship Wednesday, winning two matches each over the treacherous Pebble Beach Golf Links.

The match-play victories left the trio among eight remaining players from a starting field of 102 of the state’s best amateur players.

Just after dawn today, Berganio will play Steve Woods of Ontario and Wi will take on Steinberg. At noon, the winners will play again in the semifinals. The 36-hole championship match is scheduled for Friday.

Wi, who stunned the competition by winning the prestigious tournament in 1990 at the age of 18, just two weeks after graduating from Westlake High, had the most impressive performance Wednesday. He blitzed Scott McGihon of Palm Desert in the first round of match play, winning 5-and-4, and then blew out Hap Albers of Carmel in the afternoon match by a score of 8-and-7.

Wi, who will enter his junior year at Nevada in the fall, was a preseason All-American.

He said the toughest opponent of the day was the golf course, which played host to the U.S. Open last week and remains in frighteningly difficult condition, with pencil-narrow fairways and rough so deep it simply swallows golf balls.

“And some of the greens are so hard it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I got into the rough a few times but was lucky to get some good lies.”

Steinberg, 34, an optometrist who has played in the tournament 10 times but has never made it past the quarterfinal round, won his first match, 3-and-2, over Bob Eberle of Soquel and then blasted Kevin Rhoads of Moraga in the afternoon match, 5-and-4.

Steinberg is the reigning Southern California Golf Assn. amateur champion.

Berganio, 23, who will enter his senior year at Arizona in the fall, brought the most titles into the California Amateur. He won the U.S. Public Links championship and the Pacific Coast Amateur title last year.

But he had a tougher time in his first two matches, edging Brian Wear of Suisun by a score of 2-up before ousting 1989 state amateur champion Casey Boyns of Pacific Grove, 3-and-2, in the afternoon round.

“If I play my game, no one can beat me,” Berganio said. “The problem is, I just don’t know which game I’m going to bring out there the rest of the week.”

The biggest upset of the tournament took place in the opening match when medalist Harry Rudolph III of La Jolla, who earned the top spot by shooting a one-under-par 143 in the 36-hole stroke play competition earlier in the week that determined the 32 golfers for match play, was eliminated by Steve Molinelli of Hillsborough.

Molinelli was the last qualifier in the match-play field, emerging from a five-man playoff Tuesday to grab the final spot with a score of 155, 12 strokes behind Rudolph.

Molinelli, 25, advanced to the quarterfinals with an afternoon win over Bill O’Connor of Malibu.

Others making the quarterfinals were Mark Johnson of Barstow and Pat Duncan and Todd Demsey, both of Rancho Santa Fe.