Montgomerie - praised fans (Getty Images).

Colin Montgomerie, heckled in America in the past, has now become a fan of the fans.

"They have a lot of respect for me and I have for them," said the Scot after his opening 72 in the US Open at Pinehurst.

"It's nice to be in front of a crowd that is warm towards you."

Whether it remains that way is still to be seen, of course. The acid test will come if he gets into contention against the likes of Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson on the final day.

Out of his hearing there was the odd comment made about his latest controversy - the replacing of his ball in Indonesia in March which created a furore on the European Tour and led to him giving his prize money to charity.

But the former European number one believes his stellar performance in the last two Ryder Cups are behind the new-found respect from the galleries.

When he led the 1997 event at Congressional after a spectacular opening 65 - perhaps the round of his life - he reacted to heckling the following day by shouting out: "Save it for the Ryder Cup."

Montgomerie was dubbed 'Mrs Doubtfire' and came in for more distracting heckling at the 1998 US Open in San Francisco and 1999 Ryder Cup in Boston.

A closing bogey on Thursday left him five off the pace, but only two off what he thinks will be the winning total - level par.

Debutants Nick Dougherty and Jonathan Lomas, who came through the first-ever European qualifier at Walton Heath last week, were alongside Montgomerie overnight.