TV VIEW: WHEN WE saw those disgruntled kilted chaps carrying a life-size cardboard cut-out of Monty Montgomerie around that little corner of Louisville, Kentucky, they call Valhalla we feared that Europe wasn't as united as Nick Faldo and ourselves had hoped.

No more than ourselves, the Flower of Scotland was back home watching it all on telly, his apostles none too exultant about his exclusion from the golfing festivities.

Then up went the cry of "Ole, ole, ole!" from the men in the Leprechaun hats - we're guessing Miguel Angel Jimenez diehards? - while Soren Hansen got a rather weak squeak of "Den-maaaark" from very probably the only Dane in Valhalla.

Meanwhile, "You're shupphosed to be at home," sang the possibly boozed-up brigade supporting the English contingent, but Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson had no soundtrack at all to accompany their efforts for the cause, divil a Swede in sight.

When Ian "Poults" Poulter, ably assisted by Norn Iron's Graeme McDowell, buried the putt that banjaxed Saturday evening for Kenny Perry and Jim Furyk, we heard a cry of "Eng-er-land", but it didn't come from Pádraig Harrington because his lips weren't moving when the camera picked him out.

Then a man waving a German flag, which led us to guess he might be from Germany, was spotted in the crowd, but he wasn't waving it all that enthusiastically, his cry of "Wo ist Bernhard?" drowned out by the pair of Parisians asking, "Où est Thomas Levet?"

So, we weren't detecting much unity at all from Europe's supporters, which meant the efforts of Sky Sports to make our hearts beat 297 to the dozen about being European at this time in our history fell on deaf-ish ears, in many ways making us the sporty sofa-spud equivalent of Declan Ganley.

That didn't, need it be said, mean we didn't enjoy the battle between the lumps of land either side of the Atlantic. Fired up, we were.

"If you didn't like this there's something wrong with you," said Butch Harmon on Saturday after Poults and G Mac, as his Euro-mates call him, kept Europe afloat. We loved it, Butch, honest.

When Butch talks on telly he does so looking straight into the camera, in a kind of "Read my lips: no new taxes" kind of way, a technique that might leave the Sky presenter David Livingstone feeling like he's being slighted but makes us feel like Butch is talking straight to our hearts.

"If you didn't like this then you gotta be dead," said Tony Jacklin, a more powerful statement than Butch's, but somewhat diluted by the fact he said it while looking at David and not us.

Over on the BBC that night Peter Alliss sounded as if he felt a little bit like ourselves - sort of "cracking sporting contest, but relax the head about it being anything more profound than that" - but he wasn't mad keen on the "whoooooo whooooooo, chest-beating, frenzy-whippin', heart-beatin'" response of the contestants when they found the fairways with their tee shots.

In fairness, he didn't single out Boo Weekley, but we half guessed he had Boo in mind when he said: "Just hold on, play the game the way it's meant to be played."

Boo, of course, antagonised the entire continent of Europe by his rowdiness in Kentucky, although after reading that he once wrestled an alligator and took on an orang-utan in a fist fight we're slow to berate him about his behaviour.

Actually, we grew to love Boo, as did the crowd, in a "why the heck not?" kind of way.

"Boo S A," they chanted. At first we thought the cry came from Kentucky-based Thabo Mbeki supporters, but then we copped Boo was just adored by the natives.

Boo S A played a handy shot in yesterday's singles, one of those chippy efforts from just off the green that lands close-ish to the hole (as Peter probably wouldn't describe it), and responded by riding a sort of imaginary rodeo horse, buckarooing his way towards his ball.

"Eh," said Ewen Murray before running out of words.

Peter, if he were employed by Sky, would more than likely have packed up his microphone and returned home, concluding the end wasn't nigh, it had arrived.

By then there was so much red on the board if it's mirrored in the presidential election Sarah Palin, come November 5th, will only be a heartbeat away from being leader of the free world.

At which point Boo, we're just guessin', will buckaroo his way to heaven.