The cliche may not exactly have been initially verbalised with golf or Meadow Brook Golf Club in mind, but taking into account this year's Goodwill Golf tourney none could argue the fundamental prowess exhibited by the outfit hailing from Reading, Massachusetts.

Leading by a healthy nine strokes heading into yesterday's final round at Port Royal, the east coast foursome of professional Ed Whalley, James Robbins, James Showstack and Robert Young, while showing some jitters, stayed the course to card a net 62, for a winning overall score of 231.

The total beat Bermuda's Ocean View squad led by Dwayne Pearman, and Floridian side Plantation, with Jim Houston their top gun.

Indeed, Meadow Brook found a groove early and never left, recording rounds of 58, 58 and 53, at Belmont, Mid Ocean and Riddell's Bay respectively. "I've been playing for 40 years down here in this thing -- since 1960 -- and I've never won, although we've finished in the first three or four a couple of times,'' said Whalley.

"All my team-mates are in their 60s and 70s, so it's really kind of amazing what we've done. A couple of them did get a little uptight at times, (but) Port Royal did not play that easy.

"These guys are used to playing lush fairways. These fairways are cut kind of short there and it was difficult for them. Because if they took a divot at all the ball went nowhere, that was very hard, and the wind too.'' In entering with such a wide berth, Whalley explained his philosophy to be that of maintaining an even keel among the team.

Meadow lift Goodwill title From Page 25 However, early on it appeared all might be forsaken, as the quartet struggled to adapt to the close cut fairways.

"I think the biggest thing I was trying to do was to not let them just fold up, and have the whole thing come crumbling down,'' continued Whalley.

"Because it was tough out there a couple of times, when they got a little bit antsy and things started to happen, we had to pull it together.

"I didn't want to shoot an 80 -- net 71 -- or something. The marker we had commented to us saying, `Boy, you guys really gutted that thing out'.'' Singled out for particular praise was 78-year-old 15-handicapper Bob Young, who Whalley affectionately called their `Mr. Consistency'.

Whalley may be remembered by many for an unfortunate incident back in 1996, when he broke his hand while competing in the preceding Belmont Invitational -- now defunct -- and was unable to compete in the Goodwill, nor allowed by organisers to provide a substitute pro to fill the squad, which caused quite a stir.

He actually went on to break the same hand two more times that year, but made a triumphant return to Bermuda in 1997, he and his men winning the Lobster Pot Pro-Am Invitational.

Ocean View wound up second via retrogression with 238 ahead of Plantation.

Seizing the gross division were Spring Lake on 258, followed by Morris County and Landfall, both at 261.

Champions: Meadow Brook Golf Club's quartet, (from left) pro Ed Whalley, Robert Young, James Robbins and James Showstack, are all smiles after winning the 48th Annual Goodwill tournament with a final round net 62 at Port Royal.