THE peelly wally complexion and ginger hair is a pure dead giveaway.

With ancestral links to this nation and a couple of enjoyable golfing holidays under his belt, Jim Courier last night claimed himself as an honorary Scotsman. Unfortunately, the 20,000 paying customers who will pile into the Emirates Arena between Friday and Sunday will be rooting for the opposition.

"Scottish roots?" said Courier. "It kind of looks like it, doesn't it? I've been here before, for golf. There is great golf here. I played a lot of places: Troon, Turnberry, even the Old Course I got a round. This was years ago, a long time ago, probably 2001, 2003.

"I had great weather, it was magnificent," he added. "I went to Loch Lomond on one trip, to Dornoch on another. I have been lucky enough to go to some wonderful places. You guys are lucky for sure."

While the crowd which Team USA will face over three days in Glasgow is sure to be voluble there was a danger last night of the hyperbole getting somewhat out of hand. There won't, for instance, be 'Welcome to Hell' banners but you still got the impression yesterday that Courier and co will relish their pantomime villain status.

Not only did the four-time Grand Slam winner memorably silence Greg Rusedski and a capacity crowd at the NEC in Birmingham with an 8-6 final set, final rubber win back in 1999, on a previous meeting between the two founding nations of the Davis Cup. He and his team of John Isner and Donald Young, and doubles pairing Bob and Mike Bryan, arrive in Glasgow hoping to atone for a 3-1 defeat against these same opponents in San Diego in February.

"What's the reputation?" asked Courier of the crowd. "A bit mean? South-American mean? We didn't get the chance to go to the football match the other day, and experience what that was like. So it will be a surprise in a good way, I am sure of it. That is the beauty of Davis Cup, you don't want the crowd to be docile - you don't remember that.

"There are advantages to playing at home and advantages to playing away," he added. "There is something beautiful about being able to silence a crowd with a shot if you are a foreign player. I am sure Andy [Murray] and James [Ward] experienced that in San Diego last year and hopefully we can experience that here.

"We are motivated every year to try to push on and obviously last year stung. We don't like losing. We certainly don't like losing at home. The Brits came in and took it to us. It was a tight match. . .for not very long actually. It got away from us on the first day."

The Americans have upgraded since then. Sam Querrey, beaten by British No 2 James Ward in San Diego, misses out, perhaps more preoccupied with his role on reality dating show The Millionaire Matchmaker. While Donald Young will play Andy Murray Friday, in comes 6ft 10in World No 20 John Isner to take on Ward. But the one giant clash which everyone is really looking forward to seems almost certain to arrive on Saturday, when the Murrays - Andy and Jamie - take on Bob and Mike Bryan, the most storied doubles pairing in history. This sibling rivalry has in fact taken place before, in Monte Carlo in 2012, resulting in a narrow 7-5, 6-4 win to the Bryans.

"It was a rainy day, and they had that one court with the cover," Bob Bryan recalled. "So we played with that little tarp over us. Lendl was in the crowd, yelling some stuff. It was very slow conditions, the balls were picking up a lot of moisture and we had some crazy points. We really look forward to those marquee match-ups. We haven't played too many brother teams ... although we played those Thai twins one time.

"I think that is what the fans want to see," said his brother Mike. "They want to see the sibling dynamic out there. That would be cool, but we are ready for all the possibilities. There are a lot of combinations."

Courier will once again eschew the tracksuit to don his trademark suit courtside as he pits his wits against the Murrays. Unfortunately for him, he could wear a kilt this weekend and it wouldn't do him any good.