Last-Hole Defeat by Yale Marred Strong Pin Season

The freshman golf team's match with Yale three weeks ago ended the same way the varsity contest had ended -- with a 1-down loss of the number seven match on the 19th hole.

For the freshmen, whose only other defeat was at Exeter, the contest with the Elis had looked like another easy victory. The top three players, Yank Heisler, Jack Purdy, and Chris Gurry, all won their matches at the long, sprawling Country Club in Brookline.

Heisler, last year's Ohio State junior champ, turned in a 74 for his best round of the spring. Lawrenceville alumnus Purdy shot a solid 76, and Gurry, the team's only undefeated player, coasted in for his win at number three.

Calm Yalie

That left it up to number-four man Joe. Tibbetts to clinch the match, which he almost did. Tibbetts and his Eli foe were even coming into eighteen, and both hit long drives on the 420-yard finishing hole. The Yalie, using a four-iron from a good 180 yards out, hit a remarkable approach three feet from the pin, and Tibbetts shot up short. But he came back with a great chip inside the Eli's ball, putting the pressure of his opponent, who calmly sank his three-footer for a birdie and a 1-up win.

Yale took the next two matches -- over Danny Foster (5) and Steve Littler (6) -- and led George Vary at the seventh position by one hole with only the last one left to play.

The tall Vary had a 15-foot putt starting him in the face, which he needed to sink at 18 for a par which would tie his match. The Deerfield grad stepped up and sent the ball in the hole to set up a repeat of the varsity contest, where the seventh match similarly went into overtime. This time, on the first extra hole, Vary hit his second shot into a trap and bogeyed, while his Yalie foe parred for the victory, a disheartening one for the Crimson.

With the top four men losing only four matches between them all year, the freshmen had a successful season. They whipped M.I.T. twice, the second time at Oakley Country Club, the Engineers' small home course. There, Gurry, who makes an excellent hockey player in the winter, shot a 71 for the best round for anybody this spring.

The yard golfers also conquere Governor Dummer, Andover, and Dartmouth en route to their 5-2 season. The team's loss to Exeter was as much a case of losing to the miserable nine-hole course as getting whipped by a top-notch Exeter golf squad.

Basketball teammates Heisler and Purdy dropped their only matches at Exeter, and, together with Gurry, looked like the best in the bunch. Tibbetts, who had that rough luck against Yale, pushed the top three all season. His only other loss was at Exeter.

Foster, Littler, and Vary, rounded out the lineup and only Foster had a winning record. Frank Mahady won two of the three matches he played in.

It Could-a Been...

It was a good season for the freshmen, but one that a little better weather and some opportunity for practice could have been made an undefeated year.