Soggy Golfers Place Third in Rainy GBC's

It was a long, wet day on the links.

The Harvard men's golf team teed off at 8 a.m. In the rain yesterday at the Concord Country Club and didn't check into the clubhouse until 6 p.m.

Competing in the Greater Boston Championships, Harvard placed third among six teams. The Crimson finished with a score of 857, two strokes behind MIT's 855 and 34 strokes off of B.C's 823.

"The squad didn't perform too well," number-two Andy Chao said. "With wet clubs, it made it harder to hit straight and so we lost some balls in the trees."

Taking top honors for Harvard was sophomore Robert Kincaid who placed third overall in the tournament with his rounds of 81 and 83. In the first round, the Crimson was paced by Kincaid, Dave Miller's 83 and Dennis Crowley's 86.

The second round was highlighted by Kincaid, as well as Dave Friedman's phenomenal turnaround--chopping 14 strokes off of his first round of 96 for a second-round score of 82.

The poor weather played a key role in Harvard's mediocre play.

"With the wind and rain, scores are going to skyrocket," Kincaid said. "Being from the southwest, I had trouble adjusting to the weather out here. My muscles tighten up in the cold rain."

Concord opened this weekend and showed some signs of this winter's beating. The greens were bumpy and there was stray water in the fairways.

Nevertheless, the Crimson was on top of its game, averaging a score of 85.7 per round and no player checked in with a second-round score over 90.

"MIT was a big surprise," junior Captain Ross Cockrell said. "There is no doubt that we're a better team."

Harvard will face the Engineers in early May and plays in the Ivy League tournament this weekend.