World Cup: Rory Sabbatini and Trevor Immelman limped over the finishing line, the excellence of their golf over the first three days of the tournament more than compensating for a lacklustre, one-over-par 73 over the final 18 holes. John O'Sullivan at Kiawah Island.

It was all that was required on the final day of the World Cup on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island to become the fifth South African partnership to claim the title. The absence of the 2001 winners, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, allowed the Sabbatini and Immelman pairing an opportunity to represent their country, a responsibility that ultimately sat comfortably on their shoulders.

Only one country mustered a decent challenge on the final day, the young England partnership of Paul Casey and Justin Rose, who shot a five-under-par 67 to finish four behind the winners.

At one point it appeared they might have crept even closer. Casey had a putt from 15 feet on the 16th green which shaved the hole. At the time South Africa were in trouble on the 13th - they eventually rescued a par - and briefly the improbable seemed less far-fetched.

Casey conceded afterwards that a target of 66 was spoken about on the range, but even though they came up a mite short, they enjoyed the afternoon and the tournament.

"It's much easier playing with someone your own age with the same interests," Casey admitted. "It makes the week go much quicker. We trust each other's game. We don't apologise and know that we're both trying 110 per cent."

It is a combination that could have Ryder Cup implications.

Immelman, who gets married next month and will find his share of the winner's cheque, €600,000, very timely, admitted: "We just tried to hold it together over the front nine, hang in there. It was very important that after making bogey on the 10th we hit back straight away with a birdie."

It was a feat they repeated after dropping a shot on the par three 14th, the birdie on 15 effectively removing any lingering jitters.

The French connection, Raphael Jacquelin and Thomas Levet, birdied the last to go to seven under and third place outright with Germany (Alex Cejka, Marcel Siem), who led after the first day, emulating red figures on the home green.

Ireland and the US tied fifth, with the Americans, Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard, left to rue a triple-bogey seven, the 13th hole proving decidedly unlucky.

The transformation in Ireland's fortunes over the weekend was staggering, considering that when they strode to the first tee on the Saturday morning they languished in 17th position of the remaining 23 teams - Chile had been forced to withdraw after nine holes on the first day.

Pride was touted as the motivation and there can be little doubt that Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington redeemed reputations tarnished by the travails of the opening 36 holes. But it certainly wasn't by accident that their fortunes improved.

On both Friday and Saturday nights, and despite the onset of darkness, the Irish pair were to be found beating balls on the range. That dedication was rewarded with a six-under-par 66 on the Saturday and a five-under 67 yesterday: only one other country, England, matched the quality of the Irish pair's golf over the final two rounds and that propelled Rose and Casey into second place.

McGinley admitted: "We played poorly the first two days and took ourselves out of the ball game. It was a question of salvaging some pride and I think we did that. If you don't play well at this level you get punished and we did over the first two days."

Harrington concurred. "It's certainly better to do what we did than start well and finish badly. We didn't play our game the first two days; I don't know whether we were tired or just slipped up. The last couple of days we were motivated to get the job done. Today we could have been three or four shots better, which is a good effort in foursomes."

The Irish combination was never in a position to repeat their World Cup triumph of 1997 over the Ocean course and that will temper any disappointment. Starting poorly denied those aspirations, as McGinley explained

"If you don't play well you're not creating momentum and we didn't do that over the first two days. We're making bogeys on the same holes in the fourball: we were hitting shots into poor positions and not getting up and down in the foursomes."

The strong mental attitude displayed and the quality of their golf will have offered a modicum of consolation over the weekend, more so than an improvement in their respective bank balances of €67,000, the reward for their tied-fifth finish.

It's just that the memories if Kiawah 2003 will be bittersweet.

275 (13 under)

South Africa (T Immelman/R Sabbatini) 70 69 63 73

(1.2 million per team)

279 (9 under)

England (P Casey/J Rose) 73 73 66 67

(600,000)

280 (8 under)

France (T Levet/R Jacquelin) 69 72 68 71

(340,000)

282 (6 under)

Germany (A Cejka/M Siem) 67 77 67 71

(170,000)

284 (4 under)

IRELAND (P Harrington/P McGinley) 74 77 66 67

United States (J Furyk/J Leonard) 71 70 68 75

( 135,000)

285 (3 under)

Japan (S Maruyama/H Tanaka) 74 71 71 69

Sweden (F Jacobson/N Fasth) 72 72 67 74

286 (2 under)

Korea (KJ Choi/SK Ho) 71 75 71 69

Paraguay (C Franco/M Ruiz) 70 75 70 71

Scotland (P Lawrie/A Forsyth) 71 73 68 74

288 (level)

Wales (B Dredge/I Woosnam) 68 74 71 75

289 (1 over)

Argentina (E Romero/A Cabrera) 70 73 70 76

293 (5 over)

Spain (I Garrido/MA Jimenez) 71 75 66 81

294 (6 over)

Trinidad & Tobago (S Ames/R Ames) 75 81 67 71

New Zealand (M Campbell/D Smail) 71 74 72 77

Australia (S Appleby/S Leaney) 72 76 71 75

298 (10 over)

Mexico (A Quiroz/A Maldonado) 71 78 70 79

301 (13 over)

Denmark (A Hansen/S Kjeldsen) 72 84 72 73

302 (14 over)

Myanmar (KH Han/A Win)72 83 73 74

303 (15 over)

Hong Kong (D Fung/J Stewart) 76 80 69 78

304 (16 over)

India (D Singh/G Ghei) 81 83 70 70

314 (26 over)

Thailand (J Chitprasong/P Tipsanit) 76 78 76 84