With a new coach and a nucleus of four experienced players, the Harvard golf team will tee off against seven schools in the next week, a flurry that may determine if the squad can repeat as Greater Boston champions.

The 1-1 linksters will attempt to make up for last week's loss to Tufts next Saturday when they face Yale and Princeton in a three-way match. After that, Brown, Boston College, MIT, Northeastern, and Rhode Island will battle Harvard in three consecutive days.

With the Tigers playing on their home links, they promise to be especially tough. Harvard lost to both Yale and Princeton by close margins last year, and first-year coach Val Belmonte said most players find the Princeton course difficult when tackling it for the first time.

Leading the linksters into action will be senior captain Jim Dales, who, Belmonte said. "provides great leadership and has a good, consistent game."

Junior Glenn Alexander, whom Belmonte called the team's most talented golfer, will be looking to rebound from a disappointing 81 carded last week in the loss to Tufts. The other two returning players are sophomores Chip Raffi and Carroll Lowenstein. Lowenstein was low man last week with a score of 80.

"Next week will be very busy, but it should be excellent preparation for the Greater Boston Championships on April 21," Belmonte said, adding that he felt his team could win its third consecutive GBC title "if we keep our concentration."

Meteorology

A mild winter has helped Harvard this year, allowing the team to begin practice several weeks earlier than in previous years. However, weather has hurt the linksters recently, as they lost in strong winds to Tufts and were rained out yesterday against Brown.

At this early point, the outlook for the season is an optimistic one; but the rigorous week ahead should tell whether such optimism is justified.