The Royal & Ancient Golf Club, organisers of the just-completed Open Championship at Royal Troon, yesterday admitted that there is little they can do to halt professional golf's seemingly inexorable march towards the six-hour round.

''If a group is within the correct distance of the game in front, there is nothing to be done within the current regulations,'' said Peter Greenhough, chairman of the R&A's championship committee. ''At the end of the day, it is not the officials who take five hours to get round.

''So it is up to the players how fast they go. I don't know know why they take so long myself.''

Instead of solutions, the R&A trotted out the same tired, old excuses golf administrators have used for years. ''On Thursday, the volume of shots was a contributory factor,'' thought Michael Bonallack, secretary of the club.

''When world-class players are hitting shots as much as 60 yards off-line, it takes time to find the ball, drop it and work out what to do next. Once that happens more than a few times, you can discount the time they are supposed to take getting round.

''On a course this tough, it is difficult. Then there is the fact that the par 5s on the outward nine both played downwind all week.

''Players were waiting up to 20 minutes on the fourth tee because the group in front had to wait to play their second shots. Then you get players missing the green, chipping up and taking two and three putts. Before long, you are as much as 40 minutes behind.''

Let me paraphrase. The players are taking too long. They are within the procedure laid down beforehand. Therefore, the problem must be the procedure. Right? Wrong, at least according to the R&A.

When pressed at yesterday's press conference, all they had to offer was bobbing and weaving on the scale of Prince Naseem Hamed. ''This is discussed ad nauseum by all the tours,'' said Bonallack.

''And the timing procedure comes from the players themselves. Remarkably, once you put a player on the clock they never take more than the time allowed. We know there are slow players, but once they are warned they get back into position.''

That all sounds plausible, but it is hard to take the R&A seriously when they refuse to issue those warnings. On the first day of the championship, they didn't speak to one player.

In the R&A's defence, they are hardly the ones who should be taking the first stand. As an organisation, they only come up against this sort of thing once a year at the Open.

Indeed, because golf's rules-making body has no contract with the players, they are powerless even to fine them. The only penalty they can enforce is that of one stroke.

The lead must come from the world's tours. But don't hold your breath.

Right now, the US and European Tours have different rules for the slow play problem. In America, no warnings are issued. A competitor playing too slowly is informed of his $1000 fine immediately. If he continues to crawl, another $1000 is taken from his wallet. A third breach of the code costs him another $1000 and a one-stroke penalty.

All of which will come as no consolation to the likes of Nick Price, one of the faster players in professional golf. Last week the 1994 champion was paired with Nick Faldo, who is not, shall we say, the swiftest. At one hole, Price drove into a bunker and had played three shots before it came time for Faldo to hit his second shot. When Price eventually looked across, the Englishman wasn't ready to play. What he had been doing while Price was flailing around is anyone's guess.

Sadly, Bonallack even had an excuse for that. ''What would have been the point of being ready if the group in front were still there?'' he asked. Should that attitude spread, there is no hope.

qRaymond Jacobs and John Huggan - Page 28