One year after American spectators and overzealous United States players produced poor sportsmanship at the Ryder Cup, a new group of global golfers is confident of better US decorum.

Members of the International team defending the President's Cup, which starts tomorrow at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainsville, Virginia, cite their higher profile with US fans and a less-passionate atmosphere as reasons to expect no repeat of Boston's bad show.

"I don't think we have had anything but sportsmanship in this event," said Australia's Steve Elkington. "We probably know the American team better than the Ryder Cup team (does). We play with them all the time."

Familiarity, in this case, should not breed contempt, agreed two-time British Open champion Greg Norman. "The advantage for us is that a lot of us live in the United States. We are in certain ways friendly faces," Norman said. "With the Ryder Cup, very few of the (European) Ryder Cup team actually live here.

"We have played with the American guys on a weekly basis. We live in the same places so we're in front of the same public. But it's not that easy."

It should be easier than the European team found matters last year at the Ryder Cup. Scotland's Colin Montgomerie was heckled across The Country Club, and Justin Leonard's crucial 45-foot sparked an invasion of the green by celebrating Americans before Jose Maria Olazabal attempted a long putt which could have sustained Europe's title hopes. Olazabal missed, and the premature celebrations created bitter feelings.

"Ryder Cup, I guess the Europeans get so fired up for the game and if something like that happens, it's in the book," Masters champion Vijay Singh of Fiji said. "I spoke to the European players. They were not very happy about it, obviously. But I have had no problem with the crowd as long as I have played over here."

The challenge can also provide a rallying point for a group, especially one from around the globe, as this year's International crew is.

"When you're playing on foreign soil, no matter where you play, you have to accept the fact there is another agency involved. It's the enthusiasm of the spectators in the gallery," Norman said.

"You hear things you don't necessarily hear in a 72-hole event. You have to learn to blot those things out. That's an added pressure. But at the same time it's a stimulus, because we haven't won here. We would like to win here. We have come close. We strongly believe we can."

The only thriller in three prior Presidents Cups came here in 1996 when the score was level with the final singles match, between Fred Couples and Singh, on the 17th hole.

Couples sank a long birdie putt, touching off a celebration, and Singh eventually missed to give the Americans a 16 1/2 to 15 1/2 triumph.

"I quite understand what they did because it was a winning putt and the emotions were just so high," Singh said. "They didn't really run on the green but they were celebrating . . . If we had holed a putt like that we would have done the same.

"It went on a little long, because I had to make a putt there. And I had no problem with that. It's just that it lasted a little longer than I thought it would. But we forgot the incident right after we left the green."

But in the wake of the Ryder Cup, don't expect such a memory lapse if a similar mishap takes place on Sunday.