After winning golf's oldest major, Australian champion Cameron Smith has bristled at being asked about the new and controversial breakaway LIV tour.
Since players started arriving at St Andrews for the Open, both PGA players and those who have committed to the Saudi-backed, Greg Norman-helmed LIV Golf tour have been asked regularly about it.
And that did not stop after Smith completed his one-stroke win at the Old Course, with a journalist asking him about rumours linking the 28-year-old Queenslander with LIV.
Clearly perturbed, Smith glanced back at the famed Claret Jug sitting next to him before answering.
"I just won the British Open and you're asking about that. I think that's pretty … not that good," he said, perhaps holding back the words he really wanted to use.
When pressed directly on if he was interested in joining LIV, Smith did not confirm or deny.
"I don't know, mate," he said.
While it remains up in the air whether LIV players will be allowed to compete at the majors, the Open seems willing to remain, well, open to those players who qualify.
Major winners Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen played in the 150th Open Championship, despite committing to LIV, with Johnson finishing seven shots back in a tie for sixth.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) oversees the rules of golf as well as running The Open and the St Andrews course.
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers confirmed earlier in the week he "never said the best golfers will not be able to play" the only major not on US soil.
"But we may well look at how you get into that, whether it's an exemption or a need to qualify through our qualifying process."
As an Open champion, Smith would have an open invitation until he is 60 years old.
Norman was also an Open champion — in 1986 and 1993 — but the 67-year-old had his invitation to the champions' dinner revoked in a move he labelled "petty".
Mickelson, who won in 2013, chose not to attend. He missed the cut at St Andrews.
