stood on the first green of Castle Harbour Golf Club surrounded by corporate public relations staff, a handful of local media and interested onlookers, with borrowed cellphone in hand, ringing home and wondering just what he was going to say when someone answered.

Well, how do you tell your wife you've just won $50,000? More to the point, how do you tell her you've now got two months to consider what you're going to do with your one-off chance of increasing that to a cool one million dollars.

Lancaster, 41, had beaten four other competitors in the Gillette Putting Challenge Play-off and his wife, Denise, back home in Sandy, Utah, was taking an awfully long time to get to the phone. When she did, although you could hear only one end of the conversation, you could almost fill in the rest.

"We're going to Florida,'' he told her, a reference to the location where he will take that 10-foot putt on November 30 which could make him an instant millionaire.

"Yes, we're in ... No, I couldn't be more serious ... We're going to have some margaritas right now. Give the kids a big kiss for me.'' The owner of a screen printing business, Lancaster had sunk six of his 10 putts from seven feet, to beat nearest challenger Chris Perot from South Carolina, who holed five, and John Peeler, from Missouri, 70-year-old Fred Martin, from Miami, and Stephen Hunter from North Carolina. Each had won the chance to compete in Bermuda through a random draw at retail outlets in America.

The proceedings were conducted in almost total silence, a silence only occasionally broken by the wind or the rumble of an aircraft landing or taking off at the airport, visible across the bay.

But Lancaster, who used to be a regular golfer, but has only played three times this year, kept his nerve to claim the prize.

Third man up after watching Martin hole four times and Hunter twice, he was accurate with five out of his first seven efforts. He said afterwards: "I would have liked to have gone first. I couldn't watch the others. The hole looks a lot smaller when you're up there.'' And he revealed he'd have no need of the cellphone in Florida. "It's Thanksgiving and I'm going to take the whole family,'' he said.

A PUTT ABOVE -- Edd Lancaster, winner of the Gillette Putting Challenge Play-off, wakes his wife back home in Utah with the news that he's just earned them a minimum of $50,000.