While one of the faces of LIV Golf, Phil Mickelson, didn’t get his usual rousing welcome and later snapped at journalists when queried about the reasons behind him declining to attend Open celebrations earlier in the week.

Poulter and Mickelson are among 23 LIV Golf players in the Open Championship field at St. Andrews, with other big names including Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen.

Playing in the fourth group of the day, Poulter was announced to the crowd alongside the Old Course’s 1st fairway and the applause was certainly mixed with boos. He later admitted to not hearing the boos, but it must have rattled him as he snap hooked his tee shot perilously close to going out of bounds across the 18th fairway.

“I didn’t hear one (boo),” said Poulter, who recovered to card an opening three under 69, which including holing a 160-foot eagle putt on the 9th. “I actually thought I had a great reception on the 1st tee, to be honest. All I heard was clapping.

“My gosh, I have heard not one heckle. In three weeks, I've heard nothing.”

Ian Poulter plays from next to the out-of-bounds fence on the opening hole. PHOTO: Getty Images.

With speculation rife in St. Andrews of major championship sanctions for LIV Golf rebels starting in 2023, Poulter says he has a self-imposed media blackout during The Open so he can just enjoy playing.

“I don't want to know (LIV Golf news),” the 46-yar-old said. “You can tell me but I'm not going to listen. I'm here to play golf. This could probably be my last Open Championship at St. Andrews. So, I'm trying to enjoy it despite the questioning.

“I'm staying out of the way. I'm not reading social media. I just want to play golf, right? I can only do my job. If I listen to a lot of nonsense, then I'm going to get distracted. That's never going to be good for me.

“I'll leave it to the clever people to figure stuff out, and I'll just play golf.”

Phil Mickelson heads off to speak to the media. PHOTO: Getty Images.

A short time after Poulter spoke post-round, Mickelson fronted the media and was happy to talk about his even par 72 opening round, but not so keen on more LIV Golf-related questions.

At one point, he told one journalist: “Let it go dude, let it go.”

The line of questioning related to Mickelson’s absence from the 150th Open celebrations that have been taking placing in St. Andrews over the past three days, including the Champions Challenge and dinner.

The 2013 Open Champion said as one of the faces of the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, he declined his invite to avoid being a distraction.

"The R&A contacted me a couple weeks before and said, 'Look, we don't think it's a great idea you go, but if you want to, you can'," Mickelson said.

"I just didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I said, 'fine'. We both kind of agreed that it would be best if I didn't."

"Let it go, dude. Let it go.” – Phil Mickelson.

The 52-yar-old was then asked if he was sad to be put in that position. His reply was surprising.

"No, no. Not at all,” he said emphatically. “I think that I couldn't be more excited and ecstatic with where I'm at.

"I love the events. I get to have golf in my life and competitive golf in my life on a scale that is fun, exciting, different, and lets me play and compete but still do the things outside that I want to do."

Queried further about missing the opportunity to dine with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods at what was an emotional dinner, Mickelson bit.

"Let it go, dude. Let it go,” he glared. “That's three times you've asked the same question.

"I don't know what to tell you. I couldn't be happier."