It’s No Day at Beach for Erratic Wi : Golf: He loses in State Amateur, 4 and 3, after spending much of match-play round scrambling out of the sand.

How did it go for Charlie Wi at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on Thursday?

A clue: The stick he got the most use from was a rake.

Sure, it’s called Pebble Beach, but Wi spent way too much time in the sand.

As a result, Wi fell behind early and was eliminated in the match-play round of 16 at the 83rd State Amateur Championship.

Wi, a Westlake High graduate who lives in North Hills, was asked after the round if there was a turning point in his lopsided 4-and-3 loss to Mark Johnson of Helendale.

Cracked Wi: “The first tee.”

Actually, Wi won the first hole. Thereafter, though, Johnson hammered him.

Johnson was three under par when Wi conceded the match on the 15th green.

It marked the second consecutive year that Wi, the 1990 State champion and a five-time match-play participant in the event, could not advance beyond the second round of match play.

“There was no turning point,” Wi said. “I just played bad.”

Wi spent most of the morning with a wedge in his hands, trying to dig himself out of trouble and save par. He found five bunkers. His ball found the fairway and green on the same hole all of three times.

In short, it was uphill most of the way against Johnson, the Southern California Golf Assn. Mid-Amateur champion.

Johnson, 39, might have spotted the 22-year-old Wi a few years, but experience worked in his favor.

Johnson jumped into the lead for good on the sixth hole, a 516-yard par five with an elevated green. Unable to see the green or flagstick from the fairway, he lined himself up with a small stake in the fairway.

“It was a little orange stake,” Johnson said. “No, I think it was a red stake.”

It resulted in a red number, for certain. Johnson drilled his second shot, a two-iron, to within six feet and made the putt for an eagle--no small feat on the fabled course’s No. 2 handicap hole.

It was the 13th hole, however, that really drove a stake in Wi’s hopes.

With Johnson 2-up, Wi had a great chance at gaining ground on the 13th, a 392-yard par four. Wi’s drive found the fairway and Johnson’s landed in a bunker to the left.

Wi, the door open, hit first . . . and yanked his iron shot well left of the green.

“It was just a stupid shot,” said Wi, who attempted to fade the ball toward the flagstick and produced the opposite result. “As many times as I’ve played here and I still do dumb stuff.”

Wi was dumbfounded by what followed. Johnson hit the bunker shot of the day, a laser-beam four-iron that stopped six feet from the hole. Johnson made the birdie putt to move 3-up.

Johnson hit 13 of 15 greens and was on the fringe of another.

Counting the 12-foot birdie putt Wi conceded on No. 15 and the three consecutive sudden-death playoff holes that Johnson birdied Wednesday in defeating Joey Ferrari of Lodi, he has played his last 18 holes a staggering seven under par.

Wi, on the other hand, hit only seven of 15 greens.

“I never really got anything going,” Wi said.

And just like that, he was gone.