Crimson Golfers Keep Greater Boston Crown

Harvard golfers grabbed four of the top five positions as they rolled to a 50-stroke victory over their closest rival in the Greater Boston Intercollegiate Golf Championship yesterday.

Captain Bo Keefe and sophomore Joe Tibbetts finished the 36-hole tournament in a dead tie at 147, but Keefe managed to cop the medal honors on the 20th hole of a sudden death playoff.

This is the second consecutive time that Harvard has taken the title, and the second time that Keefe has captured medalist honors.

Bruce Lopucki finished in a tie for third at 154 with Tufts' Jack Durse and Yank Heisler placing fourth at 155.

Tibbetts has played seventh man for Harvard all season, but picked up his pace yesterday as he blazed through his first 18 in even par 71 to take a three-stroke lead over Keefe, Lopucki, and Heisler, who all came in with 74's at the halfway mark.

While Keefe was shooting a steady 73 on the second 18, Tibbetts slipped to five-over-par 76, Lopucki, 80 and Heisler, 81.

On the first hole of the playoff, Keefe narrowly missed his birdie putt and Tibbetts halved the hole with a par. Then, on the par four 440-yard second hole, Keefe hit two long shots and got down in two from the front edge of the green to beat Tibbetts' bogey five and win the medal trophy.

Team honors were never in doubt, Harvard's nearest competitior was second place Boston College, whom Harvard defeated 7-0 in match play last week and third place Tufts, whom Harvard walloped early in the year.

Harvard's Jack Purdy finished the tournament in a 79-81-160 eleventh place, while Paul Oldfield and Tommy Wynne completed the Harvard scoring with 82-85-167 and 81-88-169 respectively.

The Greater Boston Championships are the soft touch of the Crimson schedule this year. Of a seven team field, only five had played matches prior to yesterday. Scores ranged from Harvard's winning total of 1099 strokes to last place Brandeis's 1324.

Today, Harvard gets back to its Ivy League schedule in a 1:30 p.m. match against Brown at the Crimson's Myopia Country Club.