LIV Golf star Ian Poulter booed by fans during first tee at The Open

Ian Poulter is one of the highest profile golf stars to switch to the LIV Golf series, and fans at the 150th Open made sure to let the 46-year-old know how they felt about his decision.

As the first LIV Golf player to tee off in The Open on Thursday morning, Poulter felt the full force of the angered crowd, who booed him during his first tee at St Andrews.

Poulter's response was almost to miss the widest fairway in golf with his mid-iron heading well left across the 18th fairway.

His ball finished just a couple of yards short of the out of bounds line which borders The Links road on the fringe of the course.

Poulter produced a good recovery, however, and made par at the 355-yard first.

On the eve of the tournament, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers insisted banning LIV Golf rebels from next year's Open is "not on the agenda", but has not ruled out changing the championship's entry criteria.

In a surprisingly strongly-worded statement before taking questions in his traditional pre-tournament press conference, Slumbers said the Saudi-funded breakaway was "entirely driven by money" and not in the "best long-term interests of the game".

The PGA Tour has suspended members who have competed in the breakaway without permission, while the DP World Tour fined players £100,000 and banned them from last week's Genesis Scottish Open, but saw that temporarily stayed on appeal.