Golf: Getting Their Links In

The Crimson linksmen are regrouping for an abbreviated fall season after honing their games on both sides of the Atlantic over the summer. Second-year veteran Bob Donovan will be greated by three blue-chip freshmen who will fill out the ranks of a squad virtually unscathed by graduation last season.

The linksters will have just enough time to card a few practice rounds on their home course, The Country Club at Brookline, before playing in the prestigious Yale Tournament on September 23 and 24 at New Haven.

Senior captain Alex Vik will be returning from playing the European amateur circuit after posting a second-place finish in the Norwegian Amateur Championship. After playing in three successive NCAA Championships and winning the Ivy League golf crown as a freshman and sophomore, Vik is gunning for All-American honors this time around.

While playing in Switzerland, Vik got a chance to scrutinize the game of incoming freshman Theodoso Melas-Kyriazi. Melas-Kyriazi, who is a native of Switzerland, passed the examinition with flying colors. Donovan says, "Alex told me he has a fantastic short game, so this is a guy we'll be taking a close look at."

Donovan will also be gauging the play of highly touted freshman Glenn Alexander and Brett Johnson. Alexander and Johnson are expected to complement returning lettermen Spence Fitzgibbons, Dave Paxton and Jim Dales, who along with Vik formed the nucleus of last year's team.

Sophomore George Arnold also appears to have firmed up his game over the summer having recently teamed with his father, past president of the Massachusetts Golf Association, to win the father and son tournament at the Winchester Country Club.

The linksters are hoping to kick off the season on an upbeat note with a strong showing in the Yale Tournament, which is a nexus for talent-laden squads from the entire East coast.

One of the reasons the tourney has been such a good drawing card in past years is the preeminence of the Yale Golf Course, which was laid out by Charles Blair MacDonald, the autocrat of American golf when the game was just gaining hold in this country.

One of the highlights of the tournament will be the duel between Vik and Yale's Peter Tervainen, the two kingpins of Ivy League golf. When the two squared off in the Ivy League Championship last year, Tervainen edged out Vik by a single stroke to fend off the Crimson captain's bid for a third straight Ivy golf title.