M. Golf Finishes 9th

The Harvard men's golf team played a full slate of action this weekend, while inclement weather sidelined the women's team.

The men's squad competed Thursday and Friday in the New England Division 1 Golf Championships, held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Crimson finished a disappointing ninth place in the 17-team tournament, in which Central Connecticut took the title.

"We were extremely disappointed," senior co-captain Jack Wylie said. "It was a real letdown for us."

More discouraging than Harvard's middle-of-the-pack finish was that the crimson did not play up to its potential.

"We played very poorly," Wylie said. "We expected to finish better than we did."

Compounding Harvard's woes is the fact that the Crimson needed to finish near the top to earn an NCAA post-season tournament bid.

"We had to finish first or second in the tournament to get a bid to the NCAA's," Wylie said. "We had a realistic chance but we just killed any chance we may have had."

The Crimson was led by sophomore Luis Sanchez who fired a first round 77 and a second round 79. Sanchez and junior co-captain Joel Radtke were the only Crimson golfers to break 80 in both rounds. Radtke notched consecutive scores of 79.

In a strange turn of events that highlighted the Crimson's struggles, sophomore Ed Boyda disqualified himself for playing a water hazard in an improper manner. Upon realizing the gaffe, Boyda turned himself in to tournament officials.

Fortunately, in Saturday's Yale Invitational Tournament, the Crimson men were able to turn things around.

Harvard lit up the course with a scorching team score of 310, good enough for second place out of 17 teams. The Crimson finished just two strokes behind first-place Providence College. Harvard's strong play was even sweeter because the Yale's course has often tormented the Crimson in the past.

"That is a course that has had a lot of demons for us, myself included," Wylie said. "We got rid of those on Sunday."

Wylie vanquished his own personal demons to the tune of a one-round 76, tying him with Sanchez for fifth place overall.

Following close behind for the Crimson were Radtke (77) and Boyda (81).

Wylie said that the tough course conditions at the Yale Invite makes the victory all the more impressive.

"We finished second in terrible weather--it rained all day," Wylie said. "And that is a very difficult course."

Thus, the Crimson completed the match play portion of its season in excellent fashion, and the team was quite pleased to have reversed its fortunes of the previous few days.

"We were very proud of that win," Wylie said. "It was a great way to finish up the match play portion of our season."

The women's team was scheduled to compete this weekend in the Boston College Invitational tournament at the New Seabury, Massachusetts Country Club, but were rained out both days.

Both the Harvard men's and women's golf teams are back in action next Saturday in home matches against Brown and Dartmouth.