Portrush - American Xander Schauffele branded Open organisers, the R&A, "unprofessional" after his driver was deemed to be non-conforming on the eve of the tournament.
Schauffele became the first player to publicly say his equipment had failed tests introduced by the R&A last year to limit the spring effect on driver heads.
Schauffele struggled with his replacement driver on Thursday hitting just six of 14 fairways on his way to an opening three-over par round of 74.
He bounced back with a round of 65 on Friday to make the cut and moved to five-under par with a 69 on Saturday.
LEADERBOARD: 148th Open Championship - Round 3
However, Schauffele is still furious at the R&A for what he sees as their failure to keep the matter private.
"The R&A, they pissed me off because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private. This is me coming out and treating them the exact way they treated me," said Schauffele.
"The R&A didn't do their job in keeping it private. So I don't feel like I should - I can tell you right now what happened or what I know. It is an unsettling topic.
"I've been called a cheater by my fellow opponents. It's all joking, but when someone yells 'cheater' in front of 200 people, to me it's not going to go down very well."
And he believes the disruption of finding a new driver played a major role in his poor opening round.
"We're the travelling circus. There's certain moving parts on tour here and everyone on the grounds knew for some odd reason. So that's enough to throw me off my game."
The 25-year-old insisted he had no problem giving up any non-compliant clubs, but complained that the R&A test only 30 players' equipment, meaning others can continue to play with the same clubs.
"I would gladly give up my driver if it's not conforming. But there's still 130 other players in the field that potentially have a nonconforming driver, as well," he added.
"Just test the whole field. It's plain and simple."