GOLF/Us Masters build-up: In America, extreme behaviour, far from being discouraged, is promoted and publicised. David Davies looks at some of the more incredible instances of morons seeking their five seconds of fame

There is no great mystery as to why Colin Montgomerie gets heckled wherever he goes in America. To paraphrase, it's the culture, stupid.

Or maybe that should be it's the stupid culture, for almost nothing could be as cretinous as the abuse hurled at a fine golfer going about his business.

At various times in various places, this winner of the European order of merit seven times in successive years has been called a loser, a fat bastard, a jerk and likened to Mrs Doubtfire. Our own David Feherty said he had the look of "a bulldog that has just licked piss off a nettle".

At the 1999 Ryder Cup, his father had to leave his son's match because the foul-mouths were having a go at him. Invariably, at the end of the tirade, Montgomerie is advised to get back to where he came from and, after the Accenture Matchplay in Carlsbad in January, he decided to do just that.

A month later he had rescinded that decision, mostly because if he is to fulfil his career ambitions he has to compete in America. But he should harbour no illusions about the abuse stopping. There will always be people idiotic enough to imagine that by hurling insults from a safe place they are being clever.

The trouble is that in America extreme behaviour, far from being discouraged, is promoted and publicised, and some people will do anything to get what they see as their 15 minutes, or five minutes or even five seconds of fame.

And if that includes acting in a way that might prevent a sportsman from competing in the atmosphere he has a right to expect, then so be it.

Some examples. A few months after the 1995 Ryder Cup, Curtis Strange, who had had a poor match, was playing in the Honda Classic in Florida, partnering Nick Faldo. On one hole a spectator called out words to the effect of: "You choker, Strange, you lost us the Ryder Cup."

Faldo instantly told a marshal to see that the man was ejected from the grounds, and later told us about this. The episode was reported in the Guardian, and picked up and repeated in a Florida newspaper.

Later that morning I had a phone call in the media centre. It was from the man who had been ejected from the course. "I thought you might want to interview me," he said. After he had been disabused of that idea, he said: "Well, can you send me a copy of your paper with the report in it?" The wonder at the mentality of the man never ceases.

He saw nothing wrong in his behaviour, and part of the problem is that neither do certain sections of the media. For instance, in the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island - stupidly labelled the War by the Shore by an American golf magazine - a radio talkshow host got hold of the individual telephone numbers of the European team in their hotel. He then broadcast them, along with the advice to his listeners that the players should be rung up all through the night to ensure that they did not sleep.

The numbers had to be changed, but the talkshow man wasn't - it was "good radio".

Similarly, at the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, two talkshow hosts suggested Montgomerie be given the silent treatment and the crowd should turn their backs on him. This was so moronic that no one followed the advice, but nearly five hours later Montgomerie was finishing his round and the beer had been flowing.

After he had hit his second to the 18th, a spectator did turn his back on him, shouted out "Hey, Monty" and then went as if to "moon" him.

A local reporter asked him who he was. Most normal people, surely, would be embarrassed, but not Scotty Rake, who gave his name, his age, 27, and address, St Augustine. The details all appeared in the Florida Times-Union, doubtless to the satisfaction of such a Neanderthal.

Doubtless Montgomerie will be hoping and expecting that the crowds at Augusta will be better behaved, and they almost certainly will be, unless he gets into contention late on Sunday. Then they will be as biased and chauvinistic as any in the world.