Fitzgibbons started his onslaught on the second and did not falter until he reached the thirteenth. On number two he smothered his drive, hooking it into the rough, but recovered beautifully by lacing a five iron that kicked up to the pin. He went on to hole out the side-hill 17-foot putt for his three.

Out of Contention

The bottleneck in play on the closing holes finally took its toll on Fitzgibbons' concentration, as he sandwiched a bogey between three doubles to balloon out of contention.

Dave Paxton, a junior letterman from Paducah, Kentucky, shot an 83 playing number two in a round similarly marred by erratic putting. Freshmen Jim Dales and Tom Edwards rounded out the Crimson's scoring with rounds of 88 and 89.

Donovan felt that Dales and Edwards, who both come from Michigan, were handicapped by their unfamiliarity with the texture of northeastern greens and the soft, clinging rough of Hickory Ridge.

'Psych-Out Course'

Donovan was generally pleased with the way his squad was striking the ball yesterday and contrasted it to its practice sessions at the Brookline Country Club.

"Brookline is a psych-out course," he explained. "I think that people tended to get discouraged and when that happens you tend to balloon. The rough is as high as a cornfield. If you miss the green a little bit it's like your ball is in an SOS pad.

After today's tourney the linksmen hope to enter the ECAC in midseason form. But besides serving as a tune-up, the Crimson's participation in the Toski Invitational for the first time is meant to pay homage to the Toski clan of Bob, Jack, Tom and Ben, who have been a driving force behind golf in New England. Bob Toski, who is the game's foremost teacher and whom Donovan calls "the pro's pro," won the Greater Hartford Open when he was a regular on the pro tour in the 1950s.

Golfing Family

Donovan, who graduated from the University of Tennessee, never played college golf but comes from a family that has also had long affiliations with New England golf. His father built a course in conjunction with renowned golf architect George Fazio.

Donovan, though, takes a realistic attitude towards his new responsibilities as golf mentor.

"I'm basically just a ball beater," he says. "If Alex started to hook the ball badly, I really wouldn't want to fool with his swing."