Colin Byrne Caddie's RoleThe US Open anywhere near New York City is going to be a rowdy affair. The Australian Masters, traditionally played at Huntingdale in Melbourne, has got more drunks in the crowd by early Sunday afternoon than the clubs downtown have on Saturday night.

So I thought I had seen and heard all an unruly golf crowd can give to the unsuspecting golf pro until I came to the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.

If you are inside the ropes at the TPC Scottsdale you are fair game to all sorts of abuse. The tournament is reputedly the most exciting show on grass, and the par three 16th is supposed to be the most exciting hole in golf. Having experienced it I would find it hard to argue.

The par three is the nucleus of the show. Like most courses designed for tournaments these days, it has mounding all around the hole providing a natural amphitheatre for the mob. Originally there was a cart stationed on the hill selling intoxicating margaritas to the spectators. It became traditional for the patrons enveloping the tee to pass the drinks from the cart to the consumer. With such ease and accessibility it didn't take long for the punters to become the worse for drink.

Nor did it take long for word to get around that this was the place to be at the TPC. Before long the 16th evolved into a focal point for the tournament. Sponsors set up their hospitality tents and stands around it and squeezed the punters into the public stand which backs onto the 15th green.

Now, the corporate guest too has got something to say for himself, there is plenty of volume coming from the more civilised side of the hole. But the public stand still provides the bulk of the atmosphere.

The serene members of the gallery perch themselves on the mounding around the green. If the player hits a shot within 15 feet of the hole the extremely critical public hate them. If they hit a safe shot or miss the green, well they suffer the ultimate humility of getting booed, often all the way to the green.

Nowhere in the golfing world does the player feel the force of the gallery as patently as they do in Scottsdale. As you walk onto the stage that is the 16th tee you cannot help but smile in awe of the animation that surrounds you.

Us Europeans know everything is bigger and better, according to Americans, on this side of the Atlantic, and the Phoenix crowd wants America to believe their tournament is bigger and better than any other event stateside. The attendance for Saturday alone was about 150,000, hooting, hollering and generally loud-mouthed Americans having fun at the golf. Half of them seemingly don't have any interest in the game for the other 51 weeks of the year.

The "bleachers", as they call the spectator stands over here, are the largest of any event in the US. The number of volunteers was close to 5,000. The number of females in the mouthy crowd with breast implants far exceeded any proud displays I have seen at a US event. Phoenix would appear to be a popular spot for a bit of plastic surgery.

The only way to steal the thunder of the FBR Open is to stage the Super Bowl final on the afternoon of the final day, and the numbers were down on Saturday's high, but still huge and equally as loud.

Speaking of thunder, the "thunderbirds" are a group that are synonymous with the event. As far as I can gather, they are a sort of old boys club connected to the Phoenix chamber of commerce who also run the tournament. They wear blue velvet jackets, colourful trousers and American Indian jewellery.

They are all either "ex-chiefs" or about to be chiefs, and as middle-aged, almost entirely white males, their dress, although distinguished, was entirely inappropriate for a bunch of aging men. At least one thunderbird accompanied each group, and many wore out their voices trying to keep the mob on the 16th under control.

Despite the diversion that the festive nature of the Phoenix event gives the players, it is naturally still a serious tournament prepared for by the players as diligently as any other.

The light faded last Thursday when our group of Shigeki Maruyama, Mike Wier and my player, Retief Goosen, reached the final hole, due to a delayed start earlier because of frost. Wier found the greenside trap. His ball came to rest in front of a large stone.

You cannot remove stones from bunkers on the US tour. The Canadian opted to come back the following morning to complete his round, hoping that the greenkeepers would have raked the bunker and thus remove the stone from behind his ball.

This was all legal of course. The only problem was that they saw Wier's tee marker in the sand and raked around it, so when he came back on Friday the stone was exactly where it was the previous night. No relief for Mike, but it is an indication of the efforts to which players will go to try to save a shot. That is why they are so good.

The stands at the 16th are going to be even bigger and probably better next year, thus ensuring the Phoenix event's status as the greatest show on grass.