IN STOVEPIPE, black Pin Stripe pants and a lime green shirt, Jesper Parnevik appeared to be making some kind of sartorial statement. "He's still living in the Sixties," suggested one American observer. Another considered it an achievement that the Swede was actually living given his weakness for volcanic sand.

His adopted country has developed quite a liking for this offbeat, 32 year old son of a comedian. In view of tournament earnings of $764,510 so far this season, the feeling is clearly mutual.

It was in Florida last month that he shocked the normally unshockable American media by revealing that he had recently been on a diet of volcanic sand. In heaven's name why? To cleanse his system, he explained. Was it expensive? "Really expensive," came the reply. Then Parnevik added, straight faced: "I can't imagine why seeing that it tastes just like regular dirt."

Those familiar with the antics of this fascinating character, with the flipped up baseball cap and skinny as a pipe cleaner, wouldn't have been surprised. A few years ago, he wore battery powered strobe light glasses to "help synchronise the neutral firings of the brain". Well, they would, wouldn't they.

Then there is the Russian who has taken blood samples from Parnevik and, after subjecting them to some complicated, electronic process, is using them to transmit healing frequencies to the golfer. Those who heard him admit that he neglected to watch any scoreboard while narrowly failing to win the British Open at Turnberry in 1994 might take the view that any sort of enlightening process would be helpful.

Meanwhile, he is no longer to be seen cruising around the Palm Beach area in a red 1972 Cadillac convertible. According to reports, "It caught fire whenever I stopped at a traffic light." That sort of thing can be offputting, even to a committed iconoclast.

"I always like to find new ways to improve - not only my golf game but my personality," said the player who can claim considerable recent success on both those fronts. His share of second place behind Nick Price in the MCI Classic last weekend was his seventh top five finish of the season in the US.

In typically even Swedish tones, he went on: "I have a pretty wide interest, I guess. I'm pretty interested In everything and I try to learn as much about everything as possible." And unlike his father, Bo "Jesper and me are day dreamers" who works hard at being one of the most successful comedians and impressionists in Sweden, much of the laughter he promotes is unintentional.

Indeed he tends to retain an intense look about him on the golf course, while spectators are reduced to giggling at his outrageous dress sense, right down to the drainpipe pants which make bending extremely difficult, not to say hazardous.

"We're trying to bring fashion and style back to golf," said John Lindeberg, the designer responsible for Parnevik's gear. "After the Sixties and Seventies, golf got too uniform. Everyone went to the same barber. It's the end of the millennium. The world's in an identity crisis."

Explaining the idea behind the flipped up cap, Parnevik said it came to him several years ago while he was in Florida, preparing for another season on the European Tour. "I noticed I was pale, so to let the sun at my face I flipped the peak up," he said.

Then he became aware that his putting had improved. Given his tendency to tilt his head to the right, he was no longer being distracted by the peak. Though his coach laughed at the notion, Parnevik decided to give it a go in his first tournament of the season.

That was in 1992 when, in the Balearic Open, he covered the last two rounds in 67, 68 to tie Seve Ballesteros at the top of the leaderboard. Though he lost the play off at the sixth tie hole, Parnevik had established himself as a player of rich potential. And the cap has been his trade mark ever since.

Meanwhile, those who scoffed at it as a cheap gimmick may have noticed that he has now sold the underside of the peak to advertisers. Where it once said Titleist, it now says SAP - which some observers consider to be a highly appropriate attachment.

Parnevik has never taken himself too seriously. After his aberration at Turnberry thinking he needed a birdie at the last where a par would have done, he proceeded to card a bogey - a European hotel chain signed him for a commercial in which he admitted that he had recently experienced trouble with numbers. He then gave the telephone number for bookings.

He is also noted for the humorous articles he writes for Swedish golf magazines, mainly concerning the torment of playing tournament golf. "I'd rather look on the fun side rather than the bad side of things," he said of these exercises in self mockery.

As a youngster, Jesper became the toughest audience his father could face as he tried out new material at home. "It's not very often that you think your dad is funny," he explained.

In the event, it is clear that the son owes more to his father than a wry sense of humour. When Bo Parnevik was 35, he took up golf. Three years later, Jesper, aged 10, also embarked on the game, hitting "floaters" into a lake behind his house.

Only a short while later, he was outscoring his father, who nevertheless still urged him towards a career in computers. Then, as a 13 year old, the youngster declared emphatically that his ambition was to win the British Open.

The die was cast irreversibly in favour of the Royal and Ancient game when Jesper went to the US in 1984 to play golf at Palm Beach Junior College in Florida. In 1986, he informed his father in a transatlantic telephone call that he was becoming a professional golfer on the European Tour.

Bo Parnevik asked his son to sleep on it before making a decision: they never discussed it again. Instead, he was happy to go with the flow, delighting in his son's success. Indeed he was at Augusta National earlier this month for Jesper's debut in the US Masters in which the player guaranteed himself a return appearance next year by finishing tied 21st.

The father has remained on in the US to be present at the birth of his son's second child, due next month. With his wife, Mia, Parnevik has made his home there, in South Palm Beach, Florida, since earning a tour card in 1993. Ranked precariously at 120th at the end of the 1994 season, he progressed to 84th in 1995 and 53rd last year. And he is currently fourth in the money list, with career earnings in the US of $1.5 million.

Though he is having a remarkably successful season, Jesper is happy that at least one element of life back home in Sweden should remain unchanged. "I still expect my father to get top billing," he says.