It wasn't all doom and gloom for Southampton on the European sporting stage last week.

While the city's football team were bowing out of the UEFA Cup, a trio of golfers representing local Mercedes-Benz retailer Pentagon were finishing runners-up in a national tournament being held in Italy.

Gary Smith, Tony Waite and Brian Hooker claimed second place in the UK final of the Mercedes Trophy golf competition at the Palazzo Arzaga course near Lake Garda.

The Pentagon team finished just three points behind the winners in the Team Stableford event, which was played over two days.

The trip was the culmination of a fiercely contested competition involving every Mercedes-Benz retailer throughout the country and approximately 5,000 customers.

It featured individual dealer competitions to find the best customers with handicaps between 0-9, 10-19 and 20+, followed by a northern and southern final to find ten teams to go through to Italy.

"It was a wonderful trip and the hospitality from Pentagon and Mercedes-Benz was superb," said Waite who, like Smith, is a customer of Pentagon's dealership at Spicers Hill in Southampton.