Slow-play epidemic driving people away

"There is an issue of top amateurs playing slowly," said Dawson. "Anecdotally, one hears this is because college coaches in the US encourage pretty elaborate pre-shot routines, as do national coaches in Europe. So the elite amateur game has a piece of the blame."

The R&A were content that the pace of play at recent Opens was acceptable. Helped along by referees who walk with each group, the final pair at the Hoylake Open in 2006 took 3hr 45min and similarly 3hr 50 at Carnoustie last year.

However, the final two-ball pairing of Trevor Immelman and Brandt Snedeker at the Masters this month took 5hr 10min while at the Women's British Open at St Andrews last year, three-ball rounds were reaching a stultifying 6hr 30min.

The R&A have now placed slow play on the agenda for the meeting of the World Golf Foundation immediately after the Players' Championship next month in Florida. The foundation, comprising key power brokers in the game, was set up 14 years ago to help growth of the game while preserving traditions.

"We hope we will have a meeting of minds that there is a problem and we can start to work towards some improvement," said Dawson. "It needs something done about it, not just for the running of these events, but for the effect it has on grass-roots play.

"Pace of play is one of the issues cited for keeping participation levels down. It is clearly an issue right across the game, top to bottom, and it behoves all the governing bodies in golf to address it. I think what we are seeing is a combination of grass-roots golfers not being pace-of-play aware - leaving their trolleys on the wrong side of the green, marking their scorecards before they leave the green and so on - and an element of copying pre-shot routines and pacing around the green to line up putts. It is certainly true that what used to be a morning occupation is now extending into lunchtime quite a bit. It has slowed up."

At professional level, he suggested education and encouragement were preferable to stroke penalties, "but unless there is a realistic threat then it is hard to see how things will improve".

Meanwhile, drug testing at the Open will not be introduced until next year at Turnberry. Dawson said this was because there is uncertainty over precisely when this summer the PGA Tour and European Tour are making the introduction and besides, many players in this year's Open outside of those tours would not have been educated fully on anti-doping policies.

"Drug-testing is a 52-weeks-a-year operation and because the Open has already started this year with three qualifying events in South Africa, Australia and Singapore we have decided it will not take place this year," he said.

"We very much intend that it will take place next year. It is slightly unsatisfactory, but it is a function of timing and we do see the Open as another week on tour as far as drug testing is concerned."

One test that will be stepped up immediately is the Royal Birkdale course itself. Only two of the 18 holes have remained unaltered since Mark O'Meara won the silver claret jug in 1998. It is up in length by 155 yards to 7173 with four new tees, but the main alteration has been to tighten up the course to demand more precise play.

There are 20 new bunkers - 16 fairway and four greenside. A further 27 have been redesigned and 14 removed leaving a total of 123 on the course. There is one new Augusta-type heavily contoured green at the par-5 17th and three more - the fifth, eighth and 14th - have been recontoured.

The ban on mobile phones will be continued and anyone who tries to beat the system should be warned that last year, it was revealed yesterday, detection devices were so sensitive that it caught one that a spectator tried to smuggle on to the course inside a sandwich.