Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (October 31, 2004) -- The USA Men's Team won the Eisenhower Trophy for the third consecutive time, its 13th overall, at the weather-shortened World Amateur Team Championship with a 54-hole total of 25-under-par 407 at Rio Mar Country Club.

Because of heavy rain and threats of lightning, the International Golf Federation cancelled play for Sunday and based the Championship results on 54-hole scores. The USA, the only nation to finish in the top 10 in all 24 Eisenhower Trophy competitions, finished nine strokes ahead of silver medalist Spain at 416 and 10 strokes clear of bronze medalist Sweden at 417.

The USA team members, all collegiate All-Americans, were Spencer Levin, 20, of Elk Grove, Calif., Ryan Moore, 21, of Puyallup, Wash., and Lee Williams, 22, of Alexander City, Ala.

"These three individuals are uniquely diverse persons but to see them come together as a team in this event was very gratifying,” said USA captain Trey Holland. “I will follow their careers as long as there is breath in me.”

During the course of the three rounds of the championship, each USA player contributed.

Moore (65) and Williams (67), 2003 USA Walker Cup teammates, sparked the team with a 12-under-par start for a 4-stroke lead after the first round; Moore, the 2004 U.S. Amateur, U.S. Amateur Public Links, NCAA individual and Western Amateur champion, shot 67 to combine with Levin's 69 in Round 2 and increase their advantage to eight strokes; and Levin, who won five amateur events in 2004 and was the low amateur at this year's U.S. Open, shot a 67 to go along with Moore's 72 in the third round to add another stroke to their lead.

Moore, who has represented the USA on several international teams, was emotional about this victory.

"This feels better than any of the other events,” he said. “It's an amazing feeling. We went out and fought for each other and fought for the team. I'm happy we can send it off to the next USA team.”

Williams , the runner-up at the 2003 NCAAs, concurred with his teammate.

"We wanted to let the people that follow us have the same feeling we got to have when they played our national anthem at the opening ceremonies as defending champions,” Williams added.

The Americans became the 12th team to lead the event from start to finish. The USA also won four consecutive titles from 1968 through 1974 and three consecutive from 1978 through 1982.

Heavy rain, along with lightning in the area, forced a suspension of play at 10:35 a.m. The IGF, attempted to implement Condition 10 of the Championship, which cuts the field. Trying to finish the event, the IGF made the cut at the top 10 teams and ties. Those 11 teams were to play only the inward nine of the Ocean Course. However, more poor weather conditions followed in the afternoon and the resumption of play was suspended at 1:25 p.m. before play was ultimately cancelled.

"Every team out there wanted to play (Sunday),” said Holland of having Sunday play cancelled with his team holding a 9-stroke lead. “I don't think any lead is safe in this event.”

This marks the second time in 24 championships that the event was shortened. In Malaysia in 2002, the IGF implemented a cut to the top 20 after 54 holes because of heavy rains.

Although there is no official IGF recognition, Moore was the lowest individual, shooting 12-under-par 204 through 54 holes. He was followed closely by teammate Levin, who shot 206.

Rounding out the top 10 were Canada , Italy and Switzerland sharing fourth at 422, Wales in seventh at 423, England and Malaysia tied for eighth at 424 and Denmark and Germany tied for 10 th at 425. Host Puerto Rico finished tied for 37 th at 445.

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in more than 100 countries, the Women's World Amateur Team Championships are a biennial international amateur competition, which is rotated among three geographic zones: Asia-Pacific, American and European-African. This year the event is hosted by the Puerto Rico Golf Association .

Each team, which has two or three players, plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores by players from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72 holes) total is the team's score for the championship.

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Rio Grande, Puerto Rico – Results of Sunday's (31 October) fourth round of the World Amateur Team Championship, played at Rio Mar Country Club (Ocean Course=1: par 36-36—72, 6,807 yards, 6,222 meters; River Course=2: par 36-36—72, 6,873 yards, 62,82 meters):