When the 2012 British Open gets underway on Thursday, officials at Royal Lytham will be on patrol trying to cut down on slow play by competitors.

Citing extended play by golfers as hurting the sport, threesomes will have 4.5 hours to complete the course on Thursday and Friday while duos will have 2 hours and 45 minutes to finish during the weekend, according to Royal Lytham's championship committee head, Jim McArthur.

However, there is not much officials can do other than to tell the golfers they are playing too slowly.

Via SB Nation:

"This year, we are making slow play a priority," McArthur said. As Golf Digest's John Huggan noted, however, McArthur also sprinkled terms such as "mitigating" and "circumstances" into his remarks.

"We give each group a time schedule for each hole, and we monitor that very stringently," McArthur averred. "And if a group is out of position with the game in front or over the time schedule, we initially start with words of encouragement to communicate with them and tell them that they are over the schedule or out of position. If they don't respond to that, we then put them on to the clock and deal with them that way."

Stick with this StoryStream for results, leaderboard updates and more from the 2012 British Open. For all things golf, check out SB Nation's golf hub.