Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (29 October) – Posting the lowest daily total of 66 teams, the USA widened its lead to eight strokes after the second day of the 2004 World Amateur Team Championship at Rio Mar Country Club.

The USA, which is attempting to win its third consecutive Eisenhower Trophy, entered the day with a four-stroke lead over Italy and went to 20-under-par 268 based on a 67 from Ryan Moore and a 69 from Spencer Levin . That 8-under-par 136 is the lowest second-round total since the championship enacted two counting scores instead of three in 2002.

Spencer Levin of the USA shot 69 to boost his team's lead to eight strokes.  (John Mummert/USGA)

Spain sits in second place at 12-under-par 276 and Switzerland , Sweden and Wales are tied for third at 279.

"We are very happy where we are,” said Spanish captain Santiago Olle . “But the U.S. is a great team. We will try to beat them but it is very difficult.”

"These young men exemplify what it means to be a team,” said USA captain Trey Holland. "As an example, after not playing as well as he liked (Thursday), Spencer probably set a record for scrambling during the last few holes.”

Moore, the winner of two USGA titles among the numerous he has garnered since the spring, liked that assessment of the trio.

"Everybody's score has counted,” said Moore of Puyallup, Wash., who plays collegiately at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas . “There are not A, B or C players in this group. Anybody can shoot 63, 64 or 65.”

Meshing as a unit has assisted the USA but Moore has been a bulwark, posting 14 birdies and just two bogeys in two rounds.

"Ryan is just so talented,” said Puerto Rico 's Erick Morales, who played with Moore . “I look forward to watching him play on Tour next year.”

Raul Rivera of Puerto Rico, who was in the same group as Levin, was equally impressed with the play of the University of New Mexico All-American as he scrambled for par five times and birdie once in his last six holes. Rivera said: “ Spencer is a good player. I watched him like a little boy. Every shot is like a laser.”

The USA was among the fortunate teams in the morning wave of play that enjoyed sunshine during play. The afternoon groups were greeted with a pattern of showers that softened the course slightly.

Nigel Edwards of Wales stands on the 8th green of the Ocean Course as a rainbow arches over Rio Mar CC. (John Mummert/USGA

Wales made the biggest move of the afternoon wave, shooting to 3rd position with a total of 6-under-par 138 with rounds of 67 by Nigel Edwards and 71 by Rhys Davis.

"The Americans are strong,” said Wales captain Jeff Toye. “We can't assume they will fall off their perches and shoot 79s.”

Filling out the top 10, Italy stands in sixth position at 282, England, Germany and Australia share seventh at 283 and Japan is 10th at 284.

Using a 7-iron, Roman Svoboda of the Czech Republic recorded a hole-in-one on the par-3, 174-yard 4 th hole of the Ocean Course.

The low individual rounds of the day were a pair of 6-under-par 66s from Oscar Fraustro of Mexico and Dawie van der Walt of South Africa .

For complete results, visit www.internationalgolffederation.org and click on the Golfstat icon.

In IGF news, Adelaide , Australia was chosen as the site of the 2008 World Amateur Team Championships.

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.

Rio Grande, Puerto Rico – Results of Friday's (29 October) second 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):