Bad weather dashed Bermuda's hopes of improving their overnight position on the final day of the World Amateur Team Golf Championships in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Heavy morning rain and lightning forced organisers to limit play in the final round to only the top 20 teams. That meant the final positions for the rest of the field were determined by total scores after 54 holes.

Thus, Bermuda's trio of Nick Mansell, Jarryd Dillas and Tim Carr remained in 48th place in the field of 62 teams after combining for their best score of the tournament in the third round on Saturday when Carr fired 78 and Dillas 79 on the 6,939 yard Palm Course at the Saujana Golf and Country Club outside Kuala Lumpur.

With two out of the three scores counting each day, Bermuda finished with a 40-over-par total of 472.

Mansell, who had led Bermuda on the opening two days with rounds of 79 and 77, slipped to an 84 on Saturday.

But Carr, who had earlier struggled with rounds of 85 and 83, came through with a six-over-par 78 while teenager Dillas carded his second consecutive 79, having opened with an 80.

Had the weather allowed, Bermuda would have had chance to improve their overall position to somewhere in the low 40s as several teams were within striking distance.

But championship director Peter Dawson explained that organisers had been left with no option but to cut the field.

"The WAGC Championship Committee regret that it was not possible for all teams to complete 72 holes," said Dawson. "But this decision was made in view of the weather forecast and the need to concentrate maintenance resources on one course."

Eventual victory went to defending champions, the USA, who were bolstered by a six-under-par 66 from D.J. Trahan, the national college player of the year.

The US wiped out a three-stroke deficit on overnight leaders France.

"That was as fine a round of golf as you will see at the amateur level," said US captain O. Gordon Brewer Jr. "He picked the team up on his shoulders."

Trahan's round, which included four birdies and an eagle, boosted the USA to a four-day total of eight-under-par 568 and a successful defence of the Eisenhower Trophy, which they won for the 12th time.

Trahan, who plays golf at Clemson University in South Carolina in the US, was two-under-par at the turn and eagled the par-five 13th hole and then finished with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes.

For the champions, current US amateur champion Ricky Barnes shot two-over-par 74 and helped the US register a four-under-par total of 140 on the final day.

Australia and Philippines were tied in third place at two-under-par 574 followed by Austria and New Zealand at joint fifth at one-under-par 574. Completing the top 10 were England (seventh at two-over 578), Colombia (eighth at four-over-par 580), Italy (ninth at five-over-par 581) and Spain (tenth at 6-over-par 582).

Although no individual honours are awarded by the WAGC, it did recognise Marcus Fraser of Australia, who shot seven-under-par 281.