"I guess we were outclassed. We played mediocre golf," Crimson golf captain Fred Sherman said after Harvard's disappointing third-place finish in Saturday's Big Three match at Princeton.

Yale and Princeton tied for first place-and for the Reid Trophy-at 384. The Crimson totalled 390.

The loss left the Harvard linksmen, 5-5 for the season, wondering if they have any chance of finishing high in next weekend's Easterns at New Haven. A first or second place performance will qualify the Crimson for the NCAA's.

Saturday's team score was the best of the season for the Crimson golfers, but failed to put them even close to either the Tigers or the Elis.

"Maybe the captain should say. 'We could have beaten them.' But I don't feel I'm in the position to do that. They were really good." Sherman said.

Sherman shot the low individual score for the Crimson, 76, but was bettered by two men on both Yale and Princeton.

Yale's Chase Sanderson shot a 72, low of the day, and teammate Paul Collier came in with a 75. Princeton had two scores of 74, registered by Ed Marshall and Steve Noller.

Harvard's consistency-the five men contributing to the Crimson total were separated by only three strokes-was unable to wipe out the lead built up by the performance of the opposition's top two men.

Cooch Owen and Andy Marks both shot 78. In his second match of the season. Owen recovered from a very bad front nine (41) to shoot 37 for the last nine holes.

At 79 were Skip Barry and John Stoviak. Bill Salatich and Skip Kistner had 81's and didn't figure in the Crimson five-man total.