Golfers Finish Dismal Seventh in Ivy League

With whispers of a possible second-place finish going into last weekend's Ivy League tournament, the Harvard men's golf team confidently took to the links at the Bethpage Golf Club in Bethpage, N.Y.

But the aptly dubbed Black Course, widely regarded as one of the toughest public courses in the country, was murder on the Crimson, who finished only above cellar-dweller Brown in the eight-school tourney. Yale easily captured the Ivy title, with its five players tallying a team score of 945 for the 54 holes.

"It was a little tough this weekend," Dennis Crowley said. "We were going in pretty confident and we didn't play as well as we could have. We didn't put it all together."

Princeton was the Elis' closest contender, with a second-place score of 953. Columbia grabbed the bronze, 24 strokes off the lead with a 969. The Big Green was the only other squad to break the millenium, placing fourth with 973.

"It was a very long course and that made Yale's scores that much more impressive," Crowley said. "They were definitely the class of the tournament."

With Harvard's uncompetitive score of 1047, sophomore Robert Kincaid's team-leading and ninth-place overall score of 242 was the Crimson's sole bright spot. Archrival Yale placed four of its five in the top six overall.

A score of 232 earned top honors for Eli sophomore Bob "Ketchup" Heintz. Princeton's Andy "put the ball on the" Green was four shots off the lead. Yale's Greg Hull tied for third with Dartmouth's Drew Steffans, while Yale junior John Stracks rounded out the top five with a 238.

After Kincaid, the Crimson was led by Andy Chao who tallied a 261. Dave Miller took a 265, Ross Cockrell scored a 268 and Dennis Crowley finished with a 280.

"It was not what we had hoped for," Captain Ross Cockrell said.

Putting the Ivy League on moth balls until next spring, Harvard looks ahead to the Division I championships at the end of this week.

"It's the last big event of the year," Cockrell said. "It's important to us to do well."