The 38-year-old Scot was taunted during his first-round defeat to Scott McCarron in the Accenture World Match Play Championship in California this week and has had enough of the constant heckling he receives in the United States.

But the IMG sports management company who represent Montgomerie insisted to BBC Scotland that his outburst was made in the heat of the moment.

They hope he will reconsider his apparent decision once he has got over his latest disappointment.

Montgomerie told the Daily Mail: "I'm on my last legs over here. I'm 39 in June and I don't need this any more.

"I've got commitments until the end of the season that I will fulfil, but that will be it.

"No disrespect to Scott, but a first-round match against him is about as low-key an occasion as you can get in America - and I still got heckled.

"Can you imagine what it would be like if I was one clear with two to play in a major championship?"

Montgomerie won the European Order of Merit seven times in a row but has so far not been able to win a major championship.

He was the subject of abuse from spectators during the controversial 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline and he feels it could now be time to stay closer to home.

"Why not concentrate on playing in Europe, where people like and respect me? Why not be near my family?" he said.

"What can I possibly hope to achieve over here if spectators don't allow me to compete on the same terms as everybody else.

"It hard enough as it is to take on Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and the rest.

"I can't do it if I have always got one hand tied behind my back."