Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood on Wednesday faced a grilling over their participation in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series that they hope will not end their Ryder Cup days.
The English duo will tee off at Centurion Golf Club when the first event of the controversial breakaway tour starts on Thursday.
Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson this week quit the PGA Tour after agreeing huge offers to join the LIV Tour.
Westwood and Poulter were quizzed over their morals as they became the latest players to be asked about Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
When asked if he would play in a tournament organised by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Poulter said: "I'm not even going to comment on speculation" before refusing to answer when quizzed if there is anywhere he would not play on a moral basis.
Westwood then replied "you're just asking us to a hypothetical question there and I'm not going to your answer" after being asked if he would have played in Apartheid South Africa.
Signing up to the LIV Tour has led to uncertainty over whether Ryder Cup stalwarts Westwood and Poulter were ruling themselves out of representing Europe again.
Poulter said: "We don't know [if they could be involved in the Ryder Cup]. I'd like to think it wouldn't [prevent them from being involved], all the golf I've played around the world in all the different countries and tours I don't see why this should be any different.
"It's an unknown risk, we don't know how DP World Tour will view it, it's obviously a factor."
Westwood, who pointed out that he has played on European Tour events in Saudi Arabia, said: "It's something I have to take into account. I'm not sure about the playing days, I'm 50 next April. The captaincy could be in jeopardy as well, but Ian pretty much covered it all.
"What I will say is myself and Ian have been members of the PGA Tour while we've been on the European Tour and that's had no effect in the past on whether people have been captains.
"LIV Golf is another tour so why should it be any different?"
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
Scottie Scheffler five strokes ahead with weather forcing a Monday finish
Scottie Scheffler has a five stroke lead with just three holes to play after rain halted play in the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
The US Open champion and world number one continued his great form at Hilton Head in South Carolina on the fourth day of the tournament, hitting an eagle and two birdies across 15 holes.
A storm stopped play for two and a half hours with darkness forcing a finish on Monday.
Fellow American Wyndham Clark had a strong day through his 18 holes, moving into second place with eight birdies and an eagle, but two bogeys and a double bogey stopped him from further encroaching on Scheffler’s lead.
Clark is tied with American’s Patrick Cantlay and J T Poston, who have one hole left to play and Sahith Theegala, who has three holes left to play.
Scheffler is looking for his fourth win in five starts.
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler closing in on victory at Hilton Head
Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Tour dominance looks to be showing no signs of slowing down as the world number one heads into the final day of the RBC Heritage with a one shot lead on 16 under.
Fresh off securing his second Masters title in three years, the 27-year-old shot up the leaderboard at Hilton Head on Saturday with a bogey-free third round score of eight under 63.
He leads by one stroke from Austria’s Sepp Straka, while America’s Collin Morikawa sits outright third on 14 under.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy carded a second straight round of 68 to be tied for 12th place on 10 under.
Meanwhile, defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick is tied for 25th after the Englishman carded a third round score of 70.
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