October 16, 1989

LEAD: They came from another world, pioneers armed with silvery sticks, and on a greensward at the foot of the Lenin Hills today they performed a ritual as alien as the pointy-headed spacelings reportedly sighted last week in the Russian provinces. They played golf. On nine fairways snuggled ingeniously amid the high-rise tenements and hastily carpeted with squares of imported sod, they introduced the sport of Scottish kings, American presidents and country-club capitalists.

LEAD: Share prices began sliding in Japan and Europe earlier this month, then spread to the United States with a sharp drop that provoked memories of 1987. News Analysis, page D1.

LEAD: Mike and Sheila Verna, who have season tickets for both the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants, still cannot decide which team they want to win the World Series.

LEAD: Hours after eight of South Africa's most prominent political prisoners returned home from years in confinement, seven of them called today for the release of Nelson Mandela and said they would continue to work for the banned African National Congress.

LEAD: William Silver, a quick-witted trader on the American Stock Exchange, is reasonably confident that the performance of the financial markets today will not match the collapse of Monday, Oct. 19, 1987.