They had hopes of finishing in the top half of the 42-team field ? but a disappointing final-round performance from Bermuda?s women golfers saw them slip to 32nd place at the World Amateur Team Championships over the weekend.

Laura Robinson, Ebonie Burgess and Katyna Rabain began Saturday in 31st place overall in South Africa ? only a few shots back from the teams ranked in the mid-20s and with a realistic chance of surging up the leaderboard if they had a good day.

But their persistent struggles with accuracy off the tee cost them dear on the Stellenbosch Golf Club?s narrow fairways ? with Robinson the only one to record a birdie all day in a round of five-over par 77.

Burgess, who had shot an impressive even-par round of 72 the day before at the nearby De Zalze Golf Club, endured her worst round of the championships with a 16-over 88, which included a total of eight bogeys, two double bogeys and a triple bogey.

Meanwhile, Rabain found the going tough once again amid such a high-calibre field, shooting a 19-over 91.

In the event?s individual standings, Robinson fared the best of the three ? though having been tied for 49th after round two, a final-place finish of tied for 66th with a score of plus-15 was not what she was looking for.

Burgess placed 98th, having put together a four-round total of 32-over par, while Rabain finished fifth from bottom with plus-74 ? some 69 shots ahead of the bottom-placed golfer from Gabon.

South Africa won the prestigious Espirito de Santo Trophy ? becoming the first host nation to do so since 1980 ? with a score of 16-under while Sweden placed second and Colombia third.

Speaking from the team hotel last night, a clearly-deflated Robinson was making no excuses.

?We weren?t happy with the way we played at all,? she said.

?Going into the final round we were optimistic about our chances of finishing in the top half but it just didn?t happen. Both Ebonie and I had a terrible day off the tee and spent most of the round hitting sideways out of the trees.

?Again, I putted well so a lot of times I was able to salvage something from some pretty difficult situations, but if you continuously miss the fairways on the two courses we played on, you?re just asking for trouble.

?It was by far the worst I played all week, and I think the other girls would say the same. I?m not sure why that happened ? it was just an off day. Now as it happened we only dropped one place, but looking at it we know that we were good enough to do better than that.?

For Robinson and Burgess, this was their second time at the World Amateur Championships, having finished 36th along with former pro Kim Bothello in Puerto Rico two years ago.

And despite their final-round stutter, Robinson insisted that the experience of playing alongside the very best players in the amateur game was ?something you just can?t beat?.

?It?s always good to get out of Bermuda and to gauge your game against such good players,? she said.

?The field this year was a hell of a lot stronger than it was in Puerto Rico two years ago and it was quite humbling in a way to watch some of these girls play ? you can?t help but learn a lot from them.?

With the women?s event done and dusted, attention now switches to the men?s tournament which begins this week, with the battle for the famous Eisenhower Trophy set to get underway on Thursday.

Bermuda will be represented by Robert Vallis ? this year?s national amateur strokeplay champion and a regular club champion at Mid Ocean ? Port Royal superintendent Nick Mansell and college golfer William Haddrell.