Eagles Upset Golfers in Greater Boston Tourney

The Crimson linksters fell prey to an inspired salvo of golf yesterday by a B.C. quintet in the Greater Boston Championships, as the Eagles raked the Concord Country Club for a team aggregate of 793 strokes in the 36-hole event. Harvard finished a razor-thin five strokes back in the six-school field.

The linksmen had already routed the Eagles in an earlier season match but yesterday a B.C. duo of Dave Magdalenski and John McCann finished first and second in the individual scoring department. Magdalenski ousted Crimson captain Alex Vik as the Greater Boston champion with a brace of 75s to finish as medalist while McCann posted a morning 73 to finish second.

Freshman Places Third

Freshman Jim Dales carded an 82 followed by a three over par 74 in the afternoon to pace the linksmen and place third overall in the tourney. "Everyone had one bad round which blew it for us," said Dales in summary.

One shot in back of Dales was Dave "Paducah" Paxton who went from a morning 75 to an 82 in the p.m. Vik lopped eight strokes off a first round 83 to finish in sixth place at 158 while Spence Fitzgibbons went around in 159.

Concord is a Jekyll and Hyde course with an exacting first six holes and a relatively nondescript back nine. The golfer who can negotiate the Brobdignagian hazards of the early holes without incident is usually on his way to a sub-80 round.

Yesterday, Dales went through the first five holes in three over par but settled down to hit the remaining 13 greens in regulation. He birdied the 11th hole when he plunked an 8-iron fizzing with backspin only a yard from the flagstick.

Dales's playing partner was B.C.'s Magdalenski, who had six one-putt greens in the morning and eight in the afternoon besides twice chipping in from off the green.

Magdalenski is a strapping player who brings to the tee the tactics of an unruly hammer thrower. He birdied the 478-yard par five first hole both rounds with a drive and a wedge. Harvard Coach Bob Donovan said, "He's a fool who hits a wedge 170 yards or some ungodly number like that. That's prodigous length."

Magdalenski is the kind of player most in his element foraging in the woods where he can swing through brambles and brush with sickening violence. Dales said ruefully after the match, "he just scraped it out of the woods for fours every hole."

The biggest disappointment of the day was Vik's spotty performance, as he had taken medalist honors the previous two years. He played impeccably from tee to green, hitting every fairway and 11 greens in regulation in his second round. However, Vik found himself in much the same predicament as the painter who can only work in bold strokes and has trouble executing a miniature.

"My short game was terrible," he said, "I missed seven putts under six feet." Vik foozled a 15-inch putt en route to taking over 40 putts during his morning round.

The narrow defeat came as a bitter pill to swallow for the linksters who were favorites to wrest the Greater Boston crown from the defending Eagles, having won the tournament for 15 straight years prior to last season. Individual Scoring Harvard        B.C.       Jim Dales  82  74  156  Dave Magdalenski  75  75  150 Dave Paxton  75  82  157  John McCann  73  80  153 Alex Vik  83  75  158  Danny Curtis  81  76  157 Spence Fitzgibbons  77  82  159  Joe McBournie  86  80  166 George Arnold  84  83  167  Jack Callahan  83  84  167 Total      798  Total      793