Kyle Stanley was unapologetic after Robert MacIntrye complained he had failed to shout fore quickly enough before a stray shot hit his caddie's mother.

Stanley was castigated by his playing partner following the second round at The Open, after a poor tee shot on the 17th at Royal Portrush hit a member of the crowd.

The spectator, it turned out, was the mother of MacIntyre's caddie, and the Scot revealed there were "harsh words" between the two men.

But Stanley - who carded 73 in the third round on Saturday - has hit back at MacIntyre's complaints, insisting enough people around the tee warned the crowd of the impending danger.

"Several people on the tee box yelled fore," Stanley said.

"My two playing partners, my caddie, a couple of the volunteers or the marshals, even had them signalling it was going right. I mean, everyone to the right of that ball, they knew it was coming.

"So to me it's a non-issue. I'm not really sure why he decided to make such an issue about it.

"I know it hit his caddie's mum's hands off the bounce and that's unfortunate. But as far as I'm concerned, a number of people yelled fore.

"I thought that was enough. My intention was to never do anything negative or put anybody in the gallery in harm's way."

A packed Spectator Village at Royal Portrush #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/CLQMC2lben
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2019

Stanley did, however, acknowledge he could have possibly shouted out a warning first, though believes the issue has been overblown because of who the shot hit.

"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," the American said.

"If it didn't [hit the caddie's mother], I don't think we’d be talking about it right now.

"If his issue was with me not being the first person to say fore, does he have a point? Does he not have a point? That’s up to him."