Linksters Sixth in NCAAs at Portland

PORTLAND, Me.--In the second round of the NCAA New England Division One Qualifying Tournament held here Friday at the rain-drenched but sunny Portland Country Club, the Harvard linksters virtually duplicated their first day performance, finishing sixth in the 14-school field.

The University of Connecticut gained an NCAA berth by holding on to their first-round lead with a 309 team total on Friday for a winning 36-hole total of 617 strokes. Dartmouth's quintet, which went into Friday's round trailing the Huskies by six strokes, charged in with a team total of 307 but still finished second by four shots.

Cadence Work

After firing a four man aggregate of 321 on Thursday, the Crimson managed a 322 on Friday to finish deadlocked with Yale at 643 for the tournament. The Elis won this event last year.

The tourney medalist was Dartmouth's number one man, Joe Henley, a native of Belmont Hills. Henley, who last season appeared to be the heir apparent to Yale's Peter Teravainen as the best collegiate golfer in New England, lived up to expectations by firing superlative rounds of 72 on Thursday and an even par 71 on Friday.

Five strokes behind Henley was John Collich of UConn at 148. Providence's Matt Zito finished third with 73 on Friday after a 76 the day before.

Henley's first-place finish insures him an invitation to the NCAA Tournament as an individual participant. The tourney will be hosted this year by perennial big-time power Wake Forest, which boasts Arnold Palmer and a score of slightly less illustrious touring pros as alumni.

The Crimson's best individual finisher was co-captain Jim Dales, who pieced together consecutive sub-80 rounds (78, 79) for a total of 157. Chip Raffi finished a shot back of Dales with 158. Raffi had the lowest round of any Harvard player when he uncorked a 77 on Friday after opening with an 81. Glenn Alexander, who played at number one for the linksters and who usually turns out sub-80 rounds with assembly-line regularity, carded rounds of 83, 80--163.

Carroll Lowenstein, who was right behind Dales with an 80 on Thursday, slipped off the pace with an 85 on Friday. He finished fourth for the Crimson, edging out Ron Himelman, who went 82, 84--166.

On the front nine, which rolls majestically from the plateau on which the clapboard clubhouse rests down towards the lead grey waters of Casco Bay. Dales played gorgeous golf from tee to green. Dales, however, simply could not hole any putts on the slow bent grass greens.

He would have been even par through the ninth except that he white-knuckled three putts of less than a yard on the sixth, seventh, and eighth holes. He made his fourth straight bogey on number nine, a demanding 410-yd. par four with an elevated green flanked by traps, where his three-iron to the green caught the sand.

Raffi, on the other hand, after getting off to a shaky start, found his putting touch on the back nine, which winds through a pine forest upland from the bay. After bogeying four through six. Raffi seemed headed for another bogey on the seventh, a 185-yd. par three that is all sheer carry over the water, when his five-iron tee shot landed in a bunker. He skulled his sand shot but it hit the flagstick and checked up three feet from the pin.

After this bit of luck, Raffi began to zero in on the tin with his putter. He drained a 20-footer for par on nine, got another one-putt par on the 11th green that is ringed by towering pines with black velvet trunks, and then saved bogey by holing a ten-footer on 12.

Alexander went off the first tee late in the day paired with Henley and Zito in a threesome in which the birdies came fast and furious. Alexander went out in a two-over 37, sweeping through the first seven holes in even par. A rash of three putts undid him coming in. Alexander, who hits a golf ball prodigious lengths, was out-driving Henley and hitting at least two clubs less than Zito on every hole.

Zito, a squat, roly-poly fellow with a wristy swing, made up for his lack of length with an exquisite short game. On the 202-yd. par three 16th, Zito was 30 yards short of the green with a two-iron while Henley and Alexander both reached with four-irons. But Zito's chip hit the pin and lodged three inches from the cup.

Henley, whose composure was unshakeable throughout the tourney, played well nigh invincible golf. He approached the 477-yd. par five 18th hole on Friday needing a birdie to finish at par. He decided to go for the green and bombed a 245-yd. shot with his Pederson three-wood that drifted over the bunker guarding the right side of the green and the ball landed 15 feet from the pin. After that resounding shot, he had no trouble making his four.