With some of their top marksmen sidelined by what coach Bob Donovan referred to as "various dispensations," the Crimson linksters traveled to the Dedham Country and Polo Club yesterday afternoon and outshot squads from MIT, Siena College and Bates.

With a total score of 384, Harvard outdistanced the Engineers by just five strokes. Siena and Bates finished 20 and 25 shots off the pace, respectively.

The Crimson was paced by a freshman, Chip Raffi, from Winchester, who was the meet's co-medalist with a score of 73. Raffi, ranked fifth on Harvard's ladder for yesterday's pairings, had nines of 40 and 33, which tied MIT's Doug Parigian for low score.

The Engineers, in fact, had assumed an early six-shot lead at one point. Then the Crimson's Chris Ball, at number four, returned to the clubhouse having outshot his opponent 77-81, and the lead was reduced to two.

Now it was Raffi's turn. The freshman's 73 compared favorably with his opponent's 82, and in so doing, turned the two-shot deficit into a seven-stroke advantage. The Crimson linksters were on their way to improving their season's record to 9-2.

Other Harvard scores included Dave Paxton's 75 at number one, Ron Himmelman's 81 at two, George Arnold's 80 at three, Tom Edwards' 77 at six and a 98 from Leslie Greis, playing in her first varsity match of the spring, at seven.

The big news, though, was provided by Raffi, who because of yesterday's showing won a place for himself in Thursday's Big Three tri-meet against Yale and Princeton at the Country Club in Brookline.