Linksters Destroy Tufts, Drop Match to Amherst

The Harvard golf team trudged through a rain-soaked course, high winds and snow flurries yesterday to a record second-place finish in a triangle match against Tufts and Amherst.

Carroll Lowenstein and co-captain Chip Raffi led the Harvard scoring with twin 79s in the team's first match since returning from more favorable playing conditions in Puerto Rico over spring break.

Amherst achieved the low score of the day on its home course at the Hickory Ridge County Country Club, to take the match with a 401. Harvard took just six more strokes to finish second, while Tufts turned in a snowbound 447.

The team members generally found the playing conditions less than ideal. "It was just miserable," said co-captain Glenn Alexander, who still managed to shoot an 80 on the par-72 course.

White Stuff

"We did very well considering the snow, which was a psychological hazard."

Alexander described the course as fairly long, with certain holes made "very demanding" by the 40 mile-an-hour winds. "They were the strongest I've ever played in," he reported.

Hickory Ridge was open for play as usual yesterday despite the match, but no other golfers braved the elements, according to Raffi. "The coaches didn't even want to watch--they stayed in the clubhouse most of the time." Raffi said, calling the weather "not fit for man or beast."

Jumbo Sized

Harvard bettered its 1980 record against the Jumbos, who they tied at 407 in the same match last year. Raffi admitted the balmy fairways of Dorado Beach kind of spoiled us," for the natural disaster known as New England weather.

The linksters play again Thursday in a quad match against Brown. B.C., and Salem State at The Country Club in Brookline. The Boston area forecast calls for clear skies and seasonal temperatures.