First-year golf coach Bob Donovan and his charges kicked off the season two days before the ECAC qualifying tournament on Monday in Portland, Maine, in the Toski Invitational tourney which serves as a showcase for New England talent.

Before the shotgun tee-off this afternoon at the sprawling Hickory Ridge Country Club, Donovan had said "UMass is pretty much king of the hill." The Minutemen proved their dominance all over again by pulling away from the field of 26 schools.

The Crimson linksters finished ninth with an aggregate five-man score of 328, a full 25 strokes behind the blistering pace set by UMass over its 6900-yard home course.

Donovan, who doubles as assistant athletic information director, viewed the tourney as a "chance to get one under our belt," saying, "I don't want our people going into the ECAC as their first event."

The linksmen weren't taking things lightly, though, with a chance to topple the Minutemen in their own backyard. It was basically the same Minutemen contingent that nudged the Crimson out of a berth in the finals of the NCAA tournament held at Albequerque last year.

"We're kind of behind the eight ball," Donovan said.

Putting Jitters

The linksters managed to card only two sub-80 rounds despite flawless play from tee to green because of general putting jitters on the vast, layered greens.

"If we had been chipping and putting we would have been in the thing," Donovan said, voicing the complaint of every golfer who has ever succumbed to a whiskey jerk.

Alex Vik, the team captain and reigning Norwegian Amateur champion, was low man for the Crimson with a 78, five strokes behind medalist Tom Day. Vik, who finished eighth in the European Amateur this summer at Graz, Austria, will jet to Andalusia next week for the World Amateur Championship held over the Penina golf course in Portugal. Golfers from 60 nations will participate.

Vik, who normally has a putting eye sharp enough to split teak in the forests of Borneo, three-putted the first hole and was unable to drop his putts the rest of the round.

His lapses around the green were all the more disheartening, since he split 15 greens in regulation. His drives, like mountain views in Switzerland, were breathtaking. He missed only two fairways all day.

Vik had to scramble on hole four after sailing his approach over the green. He foozled a four-foot birdie putt on five, and lipped out again on ten. He finally got his birdie on the 500-yard par five eleventh when, after booming his drive, he slapped a two iron in a bunker and followed with a semi-explosion shot that ended up stony.

Spense Fitzgibbons, who anchored down the second position most of last season, carded a 79, one stroke off Vik's pace. He gunned for the leaders early on, fashioning an even par 36 going out, but faded badly as he neared the clubhouse.

"He started like a ball of fire," Donovan said. He added that "at the end everyone began to lose it."