After spending its spring break practicing in sunny Northern California, the men's golf team returned home last week to begin its season in rainy New England. The cold weather proved to be a detrimental factor for the Crimson Saturday, as it finished third in the year's first Harvard-Yale-Princeton golf tournament.

The team had hoped to play better: "The team should be really strong this year," said Captain Ian Bickley '86. "This was our first outing in the bad weather. The air is much heavier than in California, so we're not used to playing in New England."

Harvard finished with a total of 412 shots, 25 more than victorious Princeton.

"This match really doesn't reflect what we're capable of," said the disappointed Bickley. "We only played [at] 20% [strength], maybe 10%," he said.

The weather didn't seem to bother Tom Aucamp, however, as the sophomore finished with a 76, the tournament's second-lowest 18-hole total. To what did Aucamp attribute his success? "I kept warm! It was really cold."

John Pickett shot an 81 for the Crimson, the squad's second-lowest score.

This afternoon, the Crimson travels to Concord's Stow Acres Country Club for a tri-team contest against MIT and Tufts.

Bickley likes the team's chances for victory against its ECAC foes. "I don't think there's a chance that everybody will play like they did this weekend," he noted.

"We know what we did wrong, and we can work it out," added Aucamp.

A major reason for the squad's optimism is its confidence in Coach John Thompson '80. The volunteer coach has worked hard to obtain better equipment for the squad, and "golf at Harvard has improved a lot" since he took over, says Bickley. As a result of Thompson's efforts, "the team can attract better players. It's a self-perpetuating improvement, so the team's really on the upswing."

As all hockey fans know, no Harvard sports team has won an NCAA title since the 1904 golf squad. Just to reach the NCAAs this year, the team must win the two-day, 20-team, New England regional tournament in May.

The Crimson feels it has a decent chance of winning the tournament, but it learned a valuable lesson while playing the California squads. As Bickley observed, "Those teams are really in a different league. They actually recruit players to come to their schools, much like Division 1 basketball and football schools."