Scotland's 22-year-old budding star Robert MacIntyre confronted playing partner Kyle Stanley on Friday after the American failed to yell "Fore!" after multiple poor shots, including one which struck his caddie's mom behind the gallery ropes.
After his second round at Royal Portrush in the 2019 British Open Championship, MacIntrye detailed the incident and the resulting confrontation.
"The ball is going in the crowd. We're shouting 'fore,' the ball is coming down. We're shouting as it's coming into the crowd and he's just standing watching it," MacIntyre said of Stanley without mentioning him specifically by name. "People don't have enough time to react after we shout. It hits Greg (Milne), my caddie's, mom (Stephanie). And so I told them how it was."
In addition, Stanley hit a marshal with a poor shot on the 14th hole, also not shouting in warning. MacIntyre said he and playing partner Andrew Johnston both also shouted on Stanley's behalf.
He added, "He's the only one I've seen (not shouting). Straight in the crowd. It was in the crowd from the word go. And we expect them to shout 'fore.'"
MacIntyre spoke with Stanley about the incident on No. 17. The left-hander said it wasn't a pleasant exchange.
"He didn't take it well at all," MacIntyre said.
After his Saturday third round, Stanley fielded 15 questions from media, all about this incident. Stanley, who said he typically yells in warning, felt he didn't need to shout "Fore!" because of the number of other shouting.
"I hit a ball right on 17 yesterday. You had a hard wind off the left. After I hit several people on the tee box yelled "fore." My two playing partners, my caddie, a couple of the volunteers or the marshals, even had them signaling it was going right. I mean, everyone to the right of that ball, they knew it was coming.
"So to me it's kind of a nonissue. I'm not really sure why he decided to make such an issue about it. I know it hit his caddie's mom's hands off the bounce, and that's unfortunate.
"But as far as I'm concerned, a number of people yelled "fore." He made the argument that since I hit the ball that it maybe should have come out of my mouth first. I guess I can see that.
"But it's unfortunate it ended up the way it did. It certainly wasn't my intention to put anyone in harm's way. I had my wife in the gallery, my coaches. So I'm surprised it's kind of come to this point."