Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the Royal & Ancient, is confident the R&A have all the measures in place to make sure there is no repeat of the rules fiasco which overshadowed last month’s US Open.

On the eve of the 145th Open Championship at Royal Troon, Slumbers expressed total satisfaction with the R&A’s chain of command should any incidents occur during the third major of the year.

Dustin Johnson won his first major title at Oakmont last month, but only after being given a one-shot penalty following an incident which left players, officials and spectators unsure of his score with just seven holes to play.

Leading the field by two shots at the time, Johnson was told on the 12th tee that officials would review an incident which occurred on his fifth hole after the round. Johnson had seen his ball move a fraction on the green but was initially cleared and not penalised by the walking referee with his group before confusion reigned amid a controversial conclusion.

"The team here have been thinking about how to respond and monitor any sort of chain of command around rules for over 10 years now," said Slumbers in his pre-tournament address.

"And about 10 years ago a fundamental change was made by the team here which I think makes a big difference in the way we would deal with any situation that arises in the next four days, which is that the chief referee doesn't leave this compound here.

"He has access to video replays in his office and in addition to that, either Peter (Unsworth, chairman of the championship committee) or I are also always here.

"I think we're pretty good at getting that right. We've made some changes in the light of Oakmont and being more prescriptive.

"But I would say the referees that we have here are highly experienced referees. Our feeling is that the standard of the refereeing out there this weekend is second to none."

Meanwhile, Ivan Khodabaksh, the chief executive of the Ladies European Tour, has hit out at the leading male golfers for withdrawing from the Olympic Games.

Justin Rose, Danny Willett, Charley Hull and Scotland’s Catriona Matthew were confirmed in Team GB yesterday but Khodabaksh expressed his disappointment that none of the leading four male golfers in the world will be heading to Rio following a spate of call offs.

He said: "The top male golfers have let down the rest of the sport very badly. The opportunity to do something for the broader good of the game is in their hands and they seem to be taking a very myopic approach.”