No one--no one in his wildest dreams--would ever have expected a finish in the Yale-Harvard golf match that could top last year's, when the Crimson's number seven man missed a two-foot put on the second hole of a playoff to give the Elis a 4-3 victory.

But this year it was much, much closer.

Five of the seven matches ended in ties after the regulation 18 holes. The other two were split. So five golfers trooped over to the first hole (which became the 19th) and teed off again.

When it was over, Yale had won four of those playoff matches, Harvard just one. The Elis took their 11th consecutive Harvard-Yale game, 5-2.

The 19th is a big rolling par four, a tough driving hole, with water off the tee and on the right, and a double-tiered green. Like most of the other holes on the Yale course, it was in remarkably poor condition.

A university-wide employees' strike caused the trouble--the fairways and greens had been unwatered and unclipped for weeks. Patches of dirt showed through the light-green crewcut putting surface. For Harvard golfers, unaccustomed to this mess, putting was torture.

At 19, number one man Bruce LoPucki was the first to go. He lost to Jim Rogers' par after missing the green with his approach putt. LoPucki had been down after 17 holes, and it took a gallant birdie on 18 to send the match into overtime.

Number three man Tom Wynne won a reprieve at 18 when his opponent. Jon Coles, missed a one-foot putt that would have won the Elis the match. At 19, however. Wynne had driving problems, bogeyed, and lost to a par.

Bert Barnes, Yale's number four man, clinched the match by beating Yank Heisler on 19. Heisler, who played some of the best golf of the day, missed a twofooter on the crunchy green.

In the fourth of the overtime affairs, Joe Tibbetts took a double-bogey six to lose to opponent John Whitney's bogey five.

The only Harvard playoff victory was Paul Oldfield's. Oldfield who played number six, won with a bogey after his opponent drove into the rough and took a six.

Harvard captain Bo Keefe, playing number two, lost to Larry Oxford on the 17th hole, two and one. In the only other non-playoff match, Harvard's Jack Purdy, at number five, won a two-and-one victory, keeping his opponent two holes down from the fourth hole on.