STRATHAM — After struggling through almost one-and-a-half rounds of qualifying, Matthew Scobie has finally found his swing at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Scobie went 3-under-par over the final 12 holes of qualifying to sneak into the field by one stroke as the 60th seed, and since then he has smoked the competition in match play at the Golf Club of New England.

His latest victim was Tae Wan Lee of Korea, whom Scobie beat 3&1 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals today.

And he has done so carrying his own bag the entire week.

“Everybody asks about that,” said Scobie, a Canadian. “It's the kid I am. It's internal, doing my own thing.”

Scobie knocked off the fifth seed in the first round of match play and then beat the No. 28 seed in the early round on Thursday before beating Lee.

► USGA match play scoring tree

“I think it all started off for me the last 12 holes on that second day of stroke play,” Scobie said. “That was the turning point for me.”

Scobie, who graduated high school a year early and will attend the University of Houston in the fall of 2013 after taking a year off, didn't lead Lee until he went 1 up by winning the 11th hole.

“There are ups and downs,” Scobie said. “The main thing was my mindset. I just stayed within myself.”

All the matches on Thursday weren't upsets. Jim Liu, who was the medalist at qualifying, also advanced to the quarterfinals with two wins. He beat James Riley of Hattiesburg, Miss., 2&1 in the morning round of 32 and then downed Eric Ricard of Shreveport, La., 3&1 in the afternoon round of 16.

“Today was a long day,” Liu said. “In the morning, I played well. I think that took a lot out of me this afternoon. I missed a lot of opportunities, but eventually I got it done.”

Liu won the tournament in 2010 at the age of 14, becoming the youngest player to do so and breaking the mark set by Tiger Woods. He is from Smithtown on Long Island.

In other round of 16 action, No. 40 Nicolo Galletti of Pleasanton, Calif., beat No. 9 Douglas Ghim of Arlington Heights, Ill., 3&2; No. 45 Maverick McNealy of Portola Valley, Calif., beat No. 4 Zecheng Dou of China, 3&1; No. 35 Joo-Young Lee of Hilliard, Ohio, beat No. 19 Zahary Bauchoo of Forest, Va., 3&1; No. 43 Andy Hyeon Bo Shim of Duluth, Ga., beat No. 59 Andrej Bevins of Elk Grove, Calif., 19 holes; No. 7 Branson Davis of McKinney, Texas, beat No. 10 Richard Hattori of Honolulu, Hawaii, 1 up and No. 2 Nicolas Echavarria of Colombia beat No. 47 Charles Cai of West Windsor, N.J., 2 up.

The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played today with the quarters starting at 8 a.m. and the semis at 1 p.m. The two finalists will play 36 holes for the championship on Saturday.

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