Rory McIlroy has a simple, straightforward plan to eradicate tour tortoises.

The four-time Major winner has called on golf’s leading tours for slow players to receive a solitary warning before receiving shot penalties.

The issue of slow play came to the fore again during the final round of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where World No. 1 Brooks Koepka tapped his wrist in the direction of officials to signal his displeasure with the time taken by playing partner JB Holmes.

Holmes had been heavily criticised for his slow play earlier this year in capturing the rain-affected Genesis Open in L.A. while a year earlier Holmes was not penalised despite taking four minutes to hit a single shot on the final hole of the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open.

“It should be a warning and then a penalty shot. It should be you’re put on the clock and that is your warning, and then if you get a bad time while on the clock, it’s a shot. That will stamp it out right away.

“We are not children that need to be told five or six times what to do. OK, you’re on the clock. OK, I know if I play slowly here, I’m going to get penalised, and I think that’s the way forward.”

Under current European Tour regulations, “a stroke(s) penalty may only be imposed if the same player has two or more ‘Bad Times’ while having been officially timed during the same round.”