after guiding Bermuda to a 25th-place finish yesterday, well behind Americans Fred Couples and Davis Love, who became the first pair of golfers in 26 years to successfully defend the title.

The Bermudian duo combined over four rounds for a score of 617, eight strokes behind Taiwan, whom they had partnered for most of the tournament including during the final round, but a monstrous 61 shots adrift of the winners.

Once again, Swan led the way for the Island in carding a seven-over-par 79, but this was a far cry from the day before when he enjoyed great success, producing an even-par 72 at the 7,011-yard Lake Nona Golf Club course.

In contrast, the misery continued for Pearman as he could only manage an 81, a day after registering his best score of the week, a 76.

Individually, the pair ranked 49th and 55th out of 61 finishers -- there were three withdrawals, with Swan in a tie on 303, while Pearman stood alone at 314.

"I felt there was room for improvement in our performance,'' said Swan from his hotel room last night. "Today, I was erratic, with signs of brilliance and moments of disaster.

"I had some great drives and then would turn around and miss short putts.

"I was so inconsistent that if I was to put my game on a graph it would just zig-zag.'' Swan estimated his performance as being better than that turned in at the recent Bermuda Open, but explained that it was impossible to get a proper handle on the slick greens in the US if one is constantly playing on the relatively slow surfaces in Bermuda.

There was also no reward for conservatism, added Swan, and players were forced to attack because of the course length.

"These greens are between 10-11 on the stint metre, which is a measure of speed of the green, while in Bermuda it's 5-6 and there is no comparison ...

the chance of putting under those conditions in Bermuda are non-existent,'' he said.

"Today, as has been the case all week, the course played fair. It was breezy, but rewarded good shots and penalised bad shots.'' Swan is due home today, while Pearman is expected a bit later in the week.

Couples, who shot 68, and Love, who contributed a 70, finished the two-man team competition with a 20-under-par total of 556 that left them five shots in front of Zimbabweans Nick Price and Mark McNulty.

Price, a member of the host club, matched the 68 by Couples while McNulty could only match par as the two teams played together in the final foursome of the day.

The Americans, who started the day three in front of the Africans, had led after every round of the annual 32-team event.

Colin Montgomerie and Sam Torrance of Scotland finished in third position, nine shots off the lead and one better than Australians Rodger Davis and Robert Allenby.

Spaniards Jose Rivero and Miguel Angel Jimenez were another stroke behind, with South Africa and New Zealand another shot back.

German Bernhard Langer shot a final-round 69 to capture the individual scoring honours with a 16-under-par total of 272, three better than Couples.

He won $75,000 and the International Trophy while the Americans shared $260,000 along with retaining the World Cup for their country.

"This means a lot to American golf,'' Couples said after giving the United States a sweep of major team competitions this year -- including the Ryder Cup, the Dunhill Cup and the Walker Cup for amateurs.

"I'm really happy we defended our title together,'' Love said.

"We (Americans) had won every other team competition and there were a lot of expectations on us,'' Love added.

The successful defence was the first time since 1967 that the same two players had won consecutive World Cups. Those last repeat winners were Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

"We played very well every day,'' said Couples, who won the Kapalua International last week in Hawaii.

"The team that played best this week won,'' Price, the leading money winner on the US PGA Tour, said after he and McNulty did all they could to try to dethrone the Americans.

"They made so many birdies that they could afford to make a few mistakes,'' he said of the winners, both of whom broke par on all four days.

"We needed to go out today and shoot 68s and that's really tough on this golf course,'' Price said, although he did just that.

Still, neither he nor McNulty were too disappointed by their second-place showing in only the fifth time that Zimbabwe has played in the World Cup.

"I'm delighted for Zimbabwe,'' Price said. "It put our country's name in the forefront in America and will really help our junior programme.'' Langer was delighted to win the individual scoring honours.

"It's nice to put my name on the International Trophy with all those other great names,'' Langer said. "I've been second three times, so it's nice to move up a spot.'' With Langer's outstanding performance Germany might have won the Cup had his team-mate, Sven Struver, played better. They finished 16 strokes behind the Americans.