Linksters Lose to Dartmouth in Finale

It was a dark day at the Brookline Country Club yesterday.

The Harvard golf team lost its final match of the season to Dartmouth by four strokes.

Nice Going

Senior Ron Himmelman led the linksters, who collectively shot 397, with a four-over-par 75, his season's best performance. Captain Jim Dales shot a 77 while Spence Fitzgibbons finished at 80, and Charles Lowenstein at 82. Tom Edwards and George Arnolds with 83s rounded out the team score.

The lumberjacks from the north shot three 78s, a 79 and an 80.

"I played pretty well," Dales, who only double bogied twice, said yesterday. "My biggest problem was some hay fever. But since I was playing well, it didn't affect me that much." He added that he had no problems with the 90-degree temperatures yesterday.

Himmelman said yesterday he played well on the front nine holes, with a one over par 36, but was "shaky" on the back nine, shooting a three-over-par 39.

With a good short game yesterday, Himmelman said he bogied holes one and three while parring two. He birdied the fourth hole with a tap-in after a sand wedge from the fairway which landed him inches from the cup.

He parred five through nine with "mostly good chips and short putts," and birdied hole ten with a 10-foot putt.

After getting in some trouble in the woods, Himmelman pulled off a birdie on 11, parred 12, and parred 13 on "a really good sand shot."

Finishing the course with pars and bogies, Himmelman said the second shot on 18, the last hole of his Harvard career, was his best of the day. "It was right on the pin, but then it rolled back into the trap," he said.

Perhaps the bad break on that shot epitomizes the linksters' season. The team finished with a "very mediocre" 7-5 record, Dales said. "Throughout the season we could never get five good scores--we'd always get a couple but just not enough," he added.

"There's a lot of talent on the team--it's just a question of getting more practice time. The team should play well next year because there'll be a lot of seniors and they should have a lot of free time to practice," Dales said. "We'll be decent."