Harvard's golfers finished an abysmal third in the Greater Boston Collegiate Golf Tournament at the Weston Country Club yesterday.

Boston College, with an 840 total, and Boston University, with 847, finished well ahead of the pack. The Crimson struggled home with a sky-high score of 870, an average of 87 strokes per round.

Unlike normal dual or triangular matches, the GBC is a stroke play tournament in which total shots for 35 holes, and not competitive scores on individual holes, decides the outcome. Each of the seven teams enters seven men and counts the five lowest scores as its total.

Northeastern and Tufts tied for fourth with 879's. M.I.T. scored 882 for sixth, and Brandeis finished last with 892. B.U.'s Mel Weinberger fired a 73, 74--147 for the low 36-hole total, running away from the field by 15 shots.

Harvard played poorly. It was an simple as that. The Crimson swept all the top individual places last year and finished far in front in the team standings, but this year it was a sad story.

Harvard Handicapped

Mike Millis and Steve Bergman missed the all-day affair because of exams, and Wayne Thornbrough had to drop out after 24 holes because he was sick. That left Harvard with only five men to turn in five scores.

Bob Kidder made a fair showing, turning in a 168, Harvard's low score. Brian McGuinn's 171 put him in second place for the Crimson, followed by Bob Sinclair's 173, John Hawkins's 177 and Jim Torhorst's 181, which included a whopping 96.