Golf isn't exactly as brutal as football, as gruelling as cross coontry or as dependent on teamwork as soccer. The practices aren't quite as demanding as they are for crew, or hockey for example.

"I mean, we don't run stadiums or anything like that," senior co-captain Steve McConnell comments, "We don't have any set training rules. Golf is an individual sport, requiring individual effort."

But just because the golfers don't bash their heads against dummies every day or run to Watertown and back doesn't mean that golf is not a sport. Just because they practice at a country club doesn't mean that it's all a picnic for McConnell and company.

I'd guess that on the average we spend more time each day practicing than most other sports. McConnell says, in defense of golf. "I spend about seven hours a day between hitting balls and traveling to and from Brookline [Country Club, the ritzy course where the team practices.]"

Each member of the squad has to keep working on his game, perfecting his putts or approach shots and straightening his drives, to keep it in top form for the weekly qualifying rounds coach Tim Taylor arranges to give everyone a chance at playing in the meets.

"There's no security," McConnell states, "not even for the top guys. You can be playing at three one week and then drop to number ten the next."

So it is no surprise that most members of this year's team will be working extra hard to earn one of the seven spots on the squad for matches, as Harvard has one of the most balanced squads in a while. That is, there are no super stars like Art Burke and Quinn Smith who departed with graduation last year.

McConnell and co-captain Tom Yellin, who are as good as any in the East, look to be the low scorers for the Crimson this season, with returning lettermen Chip Rickets and Bob Thompson, both juniors, providing some help. Thompston, however, has not had much practice so far, as soccer took up most of his time during the fall.

The squad should also receive some aid from freshman Alexander Vik, a Norwegian who has had the honor of playing for his country in a tournament over the winter. With the demise of the junior varsity, it is important that freshmen such as Vik stay interested in the sport. For this reason the varsity team might be expanding some this season, from eight to ten members.

Only eight duffers, however, will go on the annual spring trip to Orlando, Fla. In addition to McConnell, Yellin, Thompson, Rickets and Vik, senior Jon Ellis, junior Scott McNealy and sophomore Jon Bartlett will get a chance to tee off on the Sunshine State links. Senior Peter Zurkow would also be joining the team, but his role in the Hasty Pudding Show takes him to Bermuda during spring break, where hopefully he will get in a few rounds before returning.

The elite eight are determined by a 72-hole playoff in the fall. Thompson did not make the cut due to soccer commitments, but is replacing Zurkow on the trip which is sponsored partially through alumni donations and partly raised by the team itself through mixers.

The thought of the golfers spending a week in Florida may conjure up images of getting into shape by lifting up beer cans and pulling the tabs, but the team takes the trip quite seriously.

"You have to spend a lot of time practicing," McConnell says, "and the courses around here aren't open in March. You can't go out to some muddy field and hit balls, that won't help."

"With baseball, say, Loyal Park can go around and tell a guy he's not fielding well because he's holding his glove too high. But with golf it's not that easy to tell why you aren't playing well. If you had Jack Nicklaus, maybe he could tell you, but otherwise you just have to go out and drive balls for an hour or putt for an hour..."

The 'vacation' in Florida, then, will be time well spent for the eight golfers. The squad has not as yet arranged any competition with the Southern schools, who take their golf very seriously, but the practice alone will be worth this year's budget price.