Linksters to Make Southern Trip

RRRrrroooaaaadddd TT-trrriiipppp!!!!! Ah, the call of the wild is in the air again as hundreds of bleary eyed and book-weary Harvardians get set to stream out of Cambridge this week for the annual Spring break. But for eight dauntless Ivy Leaguers and their willing coach, the traditional exodus has a special significance. To the Harvard varsity golf team, it means the linksters will once again put the pedal to the metal and the wood to the ball and ease on down the road towards the Florida panhandle for a full week of tourney action against some of that state's finest teams.

Led by co-captains Spence Fitzgibbons and Jim Dales and first-year mentor Bob Carr, the linksters will begin the early 25-hour road trip when they catch the Mass Pike around dinner time on Thursday.

After two days at the wheel, the bogey men will arrive at the Ponce de Leon Lodge and Links Resort for a Saturday tee-off against mini-titan Flagler College, whose players will be the Crimson's guides for the remainder of the week.

The Flagler campus has been Harvard's Spring retreat for the past few seasons and is one of those ultra-Floridian places where academics take a back seat to golf. The campus, as Fitzgibbons explains, "used to be a resort hotel, and the attitude hasn't really changed that much."

The rusty Crimson linksters don't expect to fare too well in the opener, because March is the peak of the season for the Flaglerians. But, Harvard sophomore and golf veteran Glenn Alexander puts it all in perspective, noting, "Hey, it'll be fun no matter what happens."

After matching mashies with Flagler at "The Ponce," the Crimson contingent will brave the hazardous marshes of Sawgrass Country Club, a course which is so treacherous that the Professional Golf Association refused to hold its annual Tournament Players Championship (TPC) there this year. Last spring, Alexander was heading for a phenomenal sub-80 round on this monster only to have his dream thwarted by darkness on the 18th tee. This time, the Michigan state champion plans an early tee-off in hopes of breaking the 80 barrier.

After a much-needed day of pool-side R&R following Sawgrass, Harvard and Flagler are scheduled to tee it up with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), Saint Leo's, and fellow northerner MIT in the FIT Invitational Tournament. Both FIT and Flagler holed out well ahead of the Crimson in this one last year, but Harvard saved face by burying MIT by 25 shots.

Home Stretch

After the FIT tournament, thelinksters will wind up the match schedule with their toughest encounter, when they shoot it up with Jacksonville--ranked in the top twenty nationwide and number two in the Florida standings.

Of course, the Crimson's schedule will include some rigorous night-time practices at local watering holes and some other off-the-course drills in addition to the heavy load of matches. As Alexander details, "We'll be playing every morning, drinking beer around the pool in the afternoon and--well, after that we'll be pretty drained."

If Alexander and his colleagues can survive the rigors of road-tripping, they'll be back up North for the traditional, season-opening tri-match against Tufts and Amherst.

The Amherst-Tufts encounter should be an easy one, but the Crimson's chances of a 1979 Ivy League crown are in question. While Yale's Ivy medalist Peter Teravainen and Princeton stand-out Bruce Smaklis both graduated, the Crimson also suffered several key departures, including two-year captain Alex Vik and four-season veteran Dave Paxton.

With Yale, Princeton and Harvard all weakened, the league's current front-runner looks to be Dartmouth, captained by NCAA finalist Joe Henley. "Henley is amazing," dales noted this week. "You'd have to say they are definitely the strongest team."

If Fitzgibbons, Alexander and Dales can step in and fill Harvard's top three spots, the linksters' hopes of nipping Dartmouth will depend on how well veterans Ron Himmelman, George Arnold, Tom Edwards and Carroll Lowenstein perform at the lower positions. In addition, Dales hopes smooth-swinging sophomore Chip Raffi, a bench-warmer last fall, will be able to get his game into competitive shape.

Last season, the Crimson finished a shamefully low fifth (as in LAST) in the Ivy tourney, but the match has been moved to April 28 this year, brightening Harvard's chances. "It used to be so early in April that it wasn't a fair test," Fitzgibbons said. "But now that it is moved back, we'll be in there."