A Wake For Wake Forest

Golfers are a peevish lot. They get annoyed at dry ball washers and par 5s they can't reach in two. But nothing disconcerts them as much as a blustery wind, the kind that sends iron shots into the weeds and turns the greens to linoleum. Good wind players usually are short bailers, guys who make a score out of bounce, bounce, one-putt.

At the NCAA Golf Championship in Albuquerque last week, a fierce wind raked the Rio Grande valley, making most of the players wonder if hang gliding might be an easier game. Everyone was trying to figure out a way to stop Wake Forest, which basically had the same team that won the 1974 and 1975 titles, a squad anchored by junior Curtis Strange and senior Jay Haas.

The pair rivals such college tandems of the past as Kermit Zarley and Homero Blancas at Houston; Jacky Cupit and Phil Rodgers, also at Houston, and Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw, who played together at Texas. Strange won the NCAA individual title in 1974 and Haas took it last year when Wake Forest made the rest of the field look like a bunch of cross-handed caddies, winning by 33 strokes.

But even though Wake Forest Coach Jesse Haddock's team had won 11 straight tournaments by an average margin of 24 strokes, he was taking no chances His 1969 and 1971 teams looked strong enough to play in the Ryder Cup and they wound up as NCAA losers.

"He's smoking eight packs of cigarettes a day," said Haas. "This tournament golf is going to kill him."

Not everyone was willing to give the team trophy to Wake Forest. Brigham Young also came to Albuquerque undefeated; moreover, Cougars had finished one-two individually in every tournament. And Oklahoma State, though without a senior, was a threat, especially because the Cowboys were acquainted with the whims of the wind. Said State's David Edwards, "All the talk just puts more pressure on Wake Forest."

After the first two rounds of play, several things were apparent: the tournament site, the University of New Mexico's South Course, was playing on a par with Augusta National; the golfers needed stabilizers on their shirts to keep from blowing into Arizona; Wake Forest had swallowed the proverbial golf ball; and today's college golfers have trouble reading, at least on the greens.

Oklahoma State led after 36 holes, mostly because Britt Harrison was not playing like the freshman he is. His rounds of 71-69, four under par, led the individual race and contributed to his team's nine-stroke margin over Brigham Young. Wake Forest was tied with surprising New Mexico for third, another stroke back and the Deacons' anchormen were dragging. Haas had 74-76, and Strange, after an opening 68 Wednesday in which he eagled his first and last holes, shot a 75 on Thursday and said he saw a rattlesnake on the 17th hole. He saw a double-bogey on the 18th.

Last year Wake Forest started out slowly also, and Oklahoma State faded at the end. But Mike Holder, the Cowboy coach, thought he had a team that could hang in this time. It included lettermen Lindy Miller, who was over par in only one 1976 tournament; Tom Jones, an All-America as a freshman; and Jaime Gonzalez, a Brazilian with a 26-inch waist 26-inch waist and a heavyweight's golf game. Joining them were Edwards, the brother of touring pro Danny Edwards, and the big, rawboned Harrison, rated by Holder as the best high school player in the country last year. Harrison is a definite threat to clean out a buffet table, and a man who, if the Dallas Cowboy computer ever gets his dimensions, could go high in the pro draft as a middle linebacker.

Strange has won three collegiate tournaments with eagles on the last hole, and his team's spirits were lifted on Friday when he chipped in for an eagle on the 18th. "We've got the momentum now," he said, even though Wake Forest still trailed Oklahoma State by nine shots and was in fourth place, behind Brigham Young and New Mexico as well.