HIGH Wycombe's golfing golden boy Luke Donald suffered a second disappointment in successive weeks when he had to be satisfied with a silver medal at the World Team Championships for the Eisenhower Trophy in Berlin.

HIGH Wycombe's golfing golden boy Luke Donald suffered a second disappointment in successive weeks when he had to be satisfied with a silver medal at the World Team Championships for the Eisenhower Trophy in Berlin.

Last week the 23-year-old former Royal Grammar School pupil failed in his bid to qualify for next year's US Masters after losing in the semi-final of the US Amateur Championships at Baltusrol.

On Sunday, though, he posted the best score of the day among players from the 30 national teams in the final round, he could not prevent the world title slipping from the grasp of Great Britain & Ireland who won the event in Chile two years ago.

After a week in which the GB&I quartet struggled to fully reach their potential, the crown went to the Americans led by veteran Walker Cup player Bryce Molder who was also winner of the individual event.

Donald, the only surviving member of the victorious GB&I team of 1998, did however produce a stunning birdie which clinched silver this time and knocked Australia into third spot with the stroke.

It went some way to compensating for what by Donald's standards was a poor week on the greens.

As in this year's Open Championship at St Andrews, his usual magical touch with the putter deserted him and left him looking merely ordinary. It was left to his Walker Cup partner and American college rival Paul Casey to steal the limelight with three sub-70 rounds which helped him finish runner up in the individual honours.

Casey fired rounds of 66, 69, 68 and 74 for an 11 under par total of 277 while Donald scored 73, 73, 71 and 72 for a one-over par aggregate.

In Chile, Donald finished in the top three with an eight-under total, but it is clear from that the amateur game is now developing at a much faster rate than at any time in its history.

Golf is a brave new world since Tiger Woods graduated a few short years ago from Stanford University, and the sport's pundits were looking to last week's event for clues of a possible challenger to the man who has taken the game by the scruff of the neck.

With the Americans cleaning up in Berlin and Donald and Casey having been ranked one and two on the ultra-competitive US college circuit earlier this year, the States look to be breeding the best.

Donald, the 1999 NCAA champion, is now back for his final year at Northwestern University in Chicago.

One of Donald's few remaining goals as an amateur is the 2001 Walker Cup which takes place next August at Sea Island, Georgia.