when he hosts the 19th annual Lobster Pot Invitational Pro-Am golf championships at Castle Harbour next week.

More teams -- 31 in total -- are included in the field than at any time during the past decade, and the professional entry will be at a new high.

"We have more pros who are competing on the various tours than we've ever had in the past,'' said Reiter, who along with his wife Joan, have enticed some 160 golfers from abroad for next week's six-day extravaganza.

They include the likes of Nike Tour regulars Tim Conley, D.J.Holland and Chris Endres plus Jim Blanks, who competes on the PGA Seniors Tour.

Also returning will be New England veteran Joe Carr, who intends to play on the European seniors tour this year, and two-time winner and defending pro champion Kirk Hanefeld.

The week kicks off on Sunday with a Pro-Lady event but begins in earnest on Monday with the first round in the 54-hole Pro-Am which continues on Tuesday and winds up on Friday.

In between, organisers will hold their third annual Charity Invitational, scheduled for next Wednesday when invited locals team up with overseas pros for a four-ball, two-best-ball event, followed on Thursday by the Lobster Pot professional and amateur 18-hole championships.

This year's purse has been upped by $2,000 to $10,000.

Hanefeld from the Salem Country Club, winner in '92 and '94, will be aiming to become the first player to triumph three times but can expect stiff competition from the likes of Conley, now representing the Rosemont Country Club in Akron, Ohio, who has also won twice before.

Other former winners in the field include the one-time Castle Harbour pro, Tom Smack, now representing the Sagamore Club in Bolton Landing, New York; Jim Blanks from the Freiburg Club in Freiburg, Germany and Washington's Rick Acton from the Sahalee Country Club.

Americans Paul Parajeckas and Steve Napoli are other familiar names in the field.

In the Pro-Am, the number two team from Tampa's Avila Golf and Country Club won't be back to defend their net title, but their number one team (fourth last year) will return as will '94 runners-up Woburn Country Club from Woburn, Massachusetts.

Gross division champions Wannamoisett Country Club from Rumford, Rhode Island bid to complete a hat-trick, having won in '93 and '94.

The field includes 27 teams from the US, two from Germany and one each from Scotland and Canada.

Of the amateur players, perhaps the most notable is Chateau Elan's Phil Niekro, a former major league baseball pitcher with the Atlanta Braves.

KIRK HANEFELD -- defending pro champion