Westwood blames crowd antics on Azinger

The 34-year-old claimed he had been abused "from start to finish" and revealed one insult he had shouted at him was a "particularly nasty reference to my mother" and that his parents had also been woken by a phone call at 4.30am on Sunday.

"They were trying to ring me but called the wrong hotel and got the wrong Westwood," he added. "It really upset my dad's preparations for walking around the course! I also got a phone call at 12:30am wishing me good luck."

He added: "I must be taking on the Monty role. Let's pick on the old guy with a few grey hairs!"

Westwood was able to see the funny side of an incident with one American fan dressed as a ghost, complete with mask from the film Scream, joking that he should have "set the five European fans dressed as leprechauns on him; I set two policemen on him instead!".

But the former European number one feels Azinger's attempts to make the crowd his team's '13th man' by holding a "pep" rally in downtown Louisville and telling them they could cheer when European players missed putts, were to blame for the less savoury moments of crowd behaviour.

"That's not the way golf's played, that's what separates golf from every other sport," said Westwood, who won just one point from his four games despite equalling Arnold Palmer's record of 12 consecutive unbeaten matches.

"It's only a minority but some people don't know the difference between supporting their team and abusing the opposition.

"The crowds in Europe, if the US team miss a putt there's silence and then a clap because we've won the hole, there's not the clapping and cheering straight away.

"But they were incited to do that. Not by the players at all, I think it's down to the captain. I have to say that. That's not to take away from the great American performance, I think they outplayed us this week."