STRATHAM — The heat and humidity haven't been the only conditions Joo-Young Lee has had to battle at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. He has played all week with mononucleosis.

Extremely dehydrated and constantly cramping up, Lee has fought his way through the tournament and on Thursday the No. 35 seed pulled off two more wins to advance to Friday's quarterfinals and semifinals.

“I don't know how I do it, honestly,” Lee said about how he has been able to play so well.

Lee, of Hilliard, Ohio, never trailed in his round-of-16 match against No. 19 Zachary Bauchou of Forest, Va., and ended up with a 3&1 victory.

Lots of water, stretching and vitamin C have been key to his run into the quarterfinals. He has also hit some good shots; he led by as many as three holes in his afternoon match.

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Local knowledge certainly paid off for the field at the tournament this week.

Nine golfers in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon had local caddies, and over the week more than 70 were provided for the field.

Steve Thorpe, the co-chair of the caddie committee, said that's considerably more than the 43 and 45 provided for the tournament the past two years.

“We'd done our work and canvassed all the local clubs,” said Thorpe, a Stratham resident who is a member at the GCNE.

The other local caddies in the field of 16 were Neil Kelly of Portsmouth Country Club in Greenland (Jim Liu), Eric Spenlinhauer of Maine (Charles Cai), Charlie Hesser of Abenaqui Country Club in Rye (Richard Hattori), Xavier Quinn of Abenaqui (Joo-Young Lee), Chris Hatem (Brandon Bauchau), Brett Wilson of the GCNE (Andy Shim), Pat Rahn of Stratham (Doug Ghim), Joseph Manchinton of Windham (Zecheng Dou) and Jack Dayton (Tae Wan Lee).

Thorpe said caddies were chomping at the bit to be involved in the USGA event. He called Jim Sheerin of Abenaqui on Saturday and was able to round up seven additional caddies for the round on Sunday, and even got one caddie to come down with just 30 minutes notice on Monday morning.

There was some incentive for the caddies. Thorpe said they receive a nominal fee from the USGA, but even better, each caddie got a free round of golf for themselves and three guests at the GCNE.

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The lone representative from New England left in the tournament, Jake Shuman of Needham, Mass., was eliminated by Nicolas Echavarria, 4&3, in the round of 32. Shuman, who was the 34th seed, never led in the match against Echavarria, the second seed from Colombia….The upsets continued in the morning round on Thursday as both the 60 and 59 seeds advanced to the round of 16 ….Nine countries were represented at the start of the tournament. They were: U.S.A., Canada, China, Mexico, India, Colombia, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

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Mark Quirk may be reached at mquirk@unionleader.com.