A marshall reported that Colin Montgomerie was involved in another incident with press photographers as he slumped to an opening 82 in the United States PGA championship.

"I told you three times on this hole alone," Montgomerie was said to have stated after throwing a ball towards the cameraman coming off the 13th green at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York.

In June the seven-time European number one brandished a club at photographers during the British Masters at the Forest of Arden and afterwards called them 'amateurs.'

This round was his highest-ever in America and came a month after he pulled out of the Open at Sandwich on the eighth hole following a fall at his hotel that injured his wrist.

On the same hole Montgomerie had apparently been called "Mrs Doubtfire" by a spectator.

It was not the first time he had heard that - the first reference to the Robin Williams film character came when he was badly heckled at the 1997 US Open.

Montgomerie's manager Guy Kinnings said he had checked with the Ryder Cup star about the incident and Montgomerie confirmed that he had had words with the photographer but had not thrown a ball towards him.

It had been lobbed to his caddie Steve Rawlinson, he said.