MANCHESTER – Corey Poulin of Jackman admits he doesn’t get a lot of respect on the golf course.

At 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds, the 23-year-old realizes he doesn’t cut an imposing figure.

“I get underestimated a lot,” said Poulin. “I went to Thomas [College] for a year. The first words out of the coach’s mouth were, ‘You don’t look like a golfer.”‘

Poulin’s opponents in the Thursday’s matches in the 82nd Maine Amateur Golf Championship at Augusta Country Club know different.

Poulin, who plays out of Moose River Golf Course in Jackman, defeated Mike Norris of Newburgh 4-and-3 Thursday morning, then turned around in the afternoon and defeated Greg Hanna of Augusta 3-and-2.

Norris, the 1999 Paul Bunyan Amateur Golf Tournament winner, is nearly a foot taller than Poulin, and Hanna, last year’s Maine Amateur runner-up under the old stroke-play format, is both several inches taller and several pounds heavier.

“He [Hanna] was 10-15 yards ahead of me all day,” said Poulin. “But [the game is] all in the mind.”

Poulin will face Les Fleisher, who plays out of The Woodlands in Falmouth, in today’s morning semifinals. The other semifinal pits defending champion Mark Plummer of Manchester against Ricky Jones of Rockland.

The morning victors play for the title beginning at 1 p.m. today.

Fleisher upset top-seeded Jonathon Brogan of Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth 2-up Thursday morning, then rallied to beat Kent Salfi of Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono 1-up in the afternoon.

Plummer stopped Nate Nealey of Gorham Country Club 4-and-3 in the morning and Jay Livingston of PVCC 2-and-1 in the afternoon. Jones nipped Adam Williamson of Oakdale Country Club in Mexico 1-up on the first hole of sudden death in the morning and Rockland Golf Club mate Jeff Wass of Rockland 2-and-1 in the afternoon.

Poulin’s opponents might be more disheartened to know he doesn’t get to play very much.

“I get to play about once every two weeks,” said Poulin, who works at Joseph’s Sporting Goods in Fairfield. “I do get over to the driving range at lunch time, so I do hit balls about every day.”

Match play takes a different mindset than stroke play, and Poulin likes it.

“Pressure doesn’t get to me too much,” he said after his second victory of the day. “I’ve improved a lot on my mind game.

“I’ve learned to commit more to shots and to be more confident.”

It doesn’t hurt to get ahead early, either.

He won holes 3, 5, and 7 to go 3 up, but Hanna won 8 and 9 to narrow the margin.

Poulin took a two-hole lead when he got up-and-down for par on the 270-yard, uphill par-4 12th, while Hanna made bogey after hitting his tee shot behind the trees to the right of the green.

Hanna, who plays for Methodist College in North Carolina, won 14 when he got up-and-down from behind the green for par and Poulin’s par putt lipped out.

Poulin closed out the match, though, by sinking a 10-foot birdie putt on 15 and sticking his approach shot 6 feet from the pin on 16. When Hanna made bogey on 16, he conceded Poulin’s putt and the match.

“I’ve always been an up-and-down player,” said Poulin. “I think match play suits my game better.”

In order to win, he’ll have to go through Plummer, who has won 11 Maine Amateurs, including the last Maine Amateur that was held at match play, in 1973.

Plummer plans to hang onto his crown, and he knows what he needs to do.

“I’ll see if I can make a few more putts,” said Plummer.

“I might have been tired,” he added. “I hit a few lousy putts.”

He got four holes ahead of Livingston over the first 10, but this year’s Bunyan runner-up won 11 and 12 to cut the lead in half. After three more halved holes, Livingston chipped in from in front of the green for a birdie on 16 and the lead was one.

“I was surprised when I saw him chipping it,” said Plummer. “And with a wedge. He was only 2 feet off the green.”

Plummer finished the match on the next hole with a routine par, while Livingston was unable to get up-and-down from right of the back right bunker.

Jones, the current Bunyan champion, and Wass have played against each other often over the years. They were playing behind Plummer and Livingston, and that pairing held the lion’s share of the spectators.

Jones joked, “There were so few people following us, I wasn’t sure we were in the same tournament.”

Jones won the third, fifth, and seventh holes for a quick lead. Wass came back, but Jones closed that one out on 17, also.

Salfi, the former University of Maine hockey player, took a four-hole lead after the first eight, but Fleisher kept plugging away. He was one ahead by the time they reached 16, and he held it over the final three holes.