title at fourth attempt By Nigel Henderson It will be of little concern to PJ Cowan that the Bermuda Open failed to live up to the last-day excitement of the last couple of years.

The Floridian had gone close to victory on three previous outings in the tournament, but had been undone on at least two occasions by three-time winner Andrew Pitts' late showing -- two years ago in a play-off.

So he was just happy to have secured the shield by the healthy margin of seven strokes.

"It's about time,'' he said afterwards. "I've been here four times and have had two seconds and a third. I've had chances to win in the past and failed to finish, so it's a nice feeling.

"I've won the Bahamas Open, the New York State Open and now the Bermuda Open.

Plus I love this place.'' Yesterday there was no Pitts to spoil his dream of a first Bermuda title, and the stocky performer just continued to play consistent golf on a course that nobody else could really tame.

His first two rounds of 67 and 68, which really put him in the driving seat, were two of only four in the 60s throughout the tournament.

TR Jones, joint second on Saturday night after a 68 and Ken Green, the former US Ryder Cup team member who finished with a 69 yesterday, were the others.

Green said it was always going to be a hard battle, but not impossible, to catch Cowan.

Green, who finally finished second, said: "When you're only trying to catch one person -- if it's eight shots or nine shots -- it's not out of the question, but you've got to start out early, you've got start making birdies.

"This is a hard golf course to shoot low on. The greens are tricky, the fairways are tricky for the guys who come over -- you have to know the golf course.'' Cowan couldn't quite match Green shot for shot over the weekend, finishing level par yesterday and with a 73 on Saturday. But that was enough to give him the $12,000 first prize.

The high scores were unsurprising, as the players endured two days of stronger breezes over the weekend compared with Thursday and Friday.

"On Saturday, I actually played great. On 15 I hit the ball an inch beyond for double bogey for a two over 73,'' said Nike Tour pro Cowan. "But once the wind gets up on this course, 75 is a good score.

"Today, in the wind, 71 was going to be a good score and that's what I shot.'' Cowan went into the final round with a seemingly unassailable eight stroke lead -- David Foster and Jones were on 216 and Green on 217. This time last year Dutchman Chris Van der Velde was in a similar position and was overhauled by Pitts -- so it was no wonder that Cowan was not counting his chickens.

"It was a nice cushion. But I knew on a golf course like this all it would take was for me to go four-over on the front nine and someone else to go two-under and that's six shots made up,'' he said.

"I didn't really feel under pressure, though, because I'm playing good, but I had some ex-Tour players like Ken, Mike Donald, and Jones playing behind me and they can shoot low scores.'' Green, meanwhile, who shot a total of 286, will be hoping the result will give him some extra propulsion as he bids to get back on the PGA Tour and somewhere near the form that put him fourth on the money list in 1988.

Green has been playing the Nike Tour of late, with a best finish of ninth in the Hershey Open, and he'll be joining Cowan and Mike Donald at the second stage of PGA qualifying in two weeks.

In 1983, his second year on the US tour, he only missed out on the Bermuda title in a play-off with his close friend Kim Swan.

He didn't return to play here until 1997, when he blamed his loss of form on poor tee-to-green golf and a dip in confidence.

He wasn't much more optimistic yesterday, despite packing a cheque for $7,500 into his back pocket.

Asked how things had been going for him since, he showed a nice line in self-depracatory humour, replying simply: "Worse.'' Then he added: "But it's nearly the end of the nineties and I've decided it's a decade slump where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. Now it's almost over.

"We'll be going up to qualifying school,'' said the 41-year-old. "Some of us guys just never give up.'' Best-performing local was amateur Mark Dupuy, who took joint ninth place with an overall 296.