Three Fermanagh men played their part as Team Ireland saw off Team USA to retain the International King's Cup at the Lough Erne Resort this afternoon.

In the second staging of the cup, a tightly contested encounter saw Team Ireland, which included Ederney brothers Declan and Darren McKeever and Martin Peters of Irvinestown, edge home by eight points with it finishing Team Ireland 580 Team USA 572.

The International King’s Cup is named after the late, great King of Golf, Arnold Palmer and is for amateur golfers of all handicap ranges and is played in a Ryder Cup style format.

It was 16 man Team Ireland that edged things after the first morning’s play on Wednesday to lead by a mere eight points at the conclusion of the fourball betterball games.

Darren and Declan McKeever narrowly lost out to Americans Dennis Basham and Patrick Olsen by 20 points to 16. (The scoring system is two points for winning a hole, one for every halved hole and zero for a loss).

There was better news for Irvinestown’s Martin Peters who partnered Omagh man Vincent Owens to a 19-17 win over Joseph Costello and Matt McDevitt. All the eight games were quite closely contested although Ireland did win one game by 16 points to help give them a 148 - 140 point lead after the Wednesday morning play.

However with eight foursomes matches played on Wednesday afternoon/evening and 16 singles games on Thursday, it was still all to play for.

Ireland increased their advantage following the Foursomes on Wednesday afternoon, winning 155-133 to move into a 30 point lead and although Team USA fought back during today's singles matches, Team Ireland did enough to hang on as they ran out narrow victors.