They're laughing at Jester Parnevik

Jesper Parnevik's replacement golf clubs will have arrived by jet from Atlanta by the time he starts his quest to win the US Masters, but the fact that he forgot to bring them caused hilarity among his rivals.

As the players warmed up for the season's first major, all talk was about how the colourful Swede, who once dieted for three months on fruit and volcanic dust "to cleanse the system", had made such a blunder.

Former champion Nick Faldo was taking a good-natured delight in the plight of his rival. Faldo, who once turned up for a tournament having left his golf trousers in the wardrobe at home, said: "Does this tell you that maybe that volcano dust might have been a bit too strong? I think that molten magma has burned a few pathways in the grey matter."

Should it come as a surprise that Parnevik forgot to bring his clubs? Not with this popular, madcap Swede.

The son of one of Sweden's top comedians, Parnevik is instantly recognisable on the course with his trademark baseball cap with its upturned peak and the kind of wardrobe - his regularly wears tight pink trousers - that has the game's traditionalists spluttering over their sherries.

He famously appeared in an advert for golf clubs stripped down to his underwear, and he turned up for a tournament in the US with a putter given to him by an amateur inventor that had an extraordinary head shaped like the wings of an American air force bomber. Lampooned, he had the last laugh when he won with it.