SANDY LANE ( CMC):

Barbados gave the best performance of the three Caribbean teams at the golf World Cup but they remained 16 places behind co-leaders South Africa, Argentina and Sweden after round one action ended yesterday. The co-leaders are all on seven-under 64.

On a blustery day that saw frequent rainy spells, a pair of rookie professionals brought their own mix of sunshine and rain at the Country Club course at the Sandy Lane Resort on the west coast parish of St. James.

The Barbadian pair, Roger Beale Jr. and James Johnson finished in fine style before the clubhouse crowd at the 200-yard, par 3 18th with Johnson's tee shot that landed six feet from the hole.

The shot briefly upstaged their playing partners, the defending champions Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd of Wales, who ended the day on four-under 65, tied for fourth place.

Best of local knowledge

Making the best of local knowledge, the Barbadian team carved four birdies, including a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-4 10th, but conceded two bogeys on the back nine.

Next best among the Caribbean contingent was Trinidad and Tobago, with 2006 players' champion Stephen Ames and his brother Robert at one shot back at one-under 70.

The pair ended a tough day with birdies on the 3rd, 8th, and 15th holes, and two bogeys - on the fifth and the 17th - while their Swedish playing partners, Henrik Stenson and Carl Petterson, were rampant with a near-flawless seven birdies.

But the first became the last in this first round of alternate shot play. The Jamaican duo of Peter Horrobin and Delroy Cambridge, who teed it up first alongside the German team of two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem, finished next to last among the 24 teams in the tournament at plus-one.

Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer's 40-foot birdie putt on the par-5 9th highlighted an early German surge to a two-shot clubhouse lead - eight shots clear of a hapless Jamaican pair - as round one began.