Bermuda finished seventh out of 14 countries in the Nations Cup and nine shots out of contention for a World Cup berth.

Despite this disappointment, however, the Island's golfing pair of Michael Sims and Dwayne Pearman had the satisfaction of sharing the low score for the fourth and final round on Saturday with hosts Mexico and Costa Rica.

All three countries carded one-under par 70 as the tournament closed with a round of alternate shot, leaving Bermuda at four-under 280 overall for the competition which was held at par-71 El Tigre Golf Club in Puerto Vallarta.

In some late excitement, Chile, who had jumped to an early lead from round one, held off home team Mexico by a single shot to win with 14-under par. Both of those teams qualified for next month's World Cup which will be held in the USA.

"I am very proud of my team. They reaffirmed the fact that they are equally as talented as anyone in the field and had an equal opportunity to be one of the two teams that qualified for the World Cup.

"The difference was the conversion of putts - notwithstanding the fact that they stumbled on the back nine of the second round which proved very, very costly," said the Island's non-playing captain Kim Swan.

In the final round, Bermuda birdied the 7th, 10th and 18th holes while suffering bogeys on the 12th and 15th.

Again, they were frustrated by the several putts that just did not go their way.

"I didn't realise they had the low score for the round and they didn't even make any putts yesterday (on Saturday)," said a surprised Swan, speaking to The Royal Gazette en route back home yesterday.

"They left a lot of birdies on the course unfortunately as far as the putts not dropping. On the first four holes we made a lot of good putts that lipped out.

"It was the theme of the week for us - the putts just weren't going in."

Swan said this experience would serve Bermuda in good stead should the Sims-Pearman combination be chosen for another Nations Cup.