Golf’s R&A Club blasts open doors to women

ST ANDREWS — Sponsors and women golfers, including four-time major champion Laura Davies, have welcomed the move by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland to allow female members.

More than three-quarters of the global membership of the club, known as the home of golf, took part in the ballot, with 85 per cent voting for women to become members.

“It is great news; back when I turned pro, I would never have imagined that this could happen,” Davies, 50, said in a statement released by the Ladies European Tour. “It is a huge step forward for the R&A and women’s golf and everyone will be delighted with the result.”

The R&A’s membership policy had come under scrutiny at Muirfield last year when the Scottish club hosted the British Open.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond did not attend the event to protest against the club’s position on female members. Royal Troon in Scotland and England’s Royal St George’s are the other clubs among the nine that host the British Open to have all-male memberships.

“This is a very important and positive day in the history of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club,” club secretary Peter Dawson said. “The R&A has served the sport of golf well for 260 years and I am confident that the club will continue to do so in future with the support of all its members, both women and men.”

The club will be adding a significant initial number of women to become members in the coming months,” Dawson added.

Ted Bishop, president of the PGA of America, said his organisation loudly applauds the decision.

Helen Grant, Britain’s Minister for Sport, said she hoped other clubs that still have outdated same-sex policies would follow suit.

Many golfers, both male and female stressed that the sport must move with the times to keep younger players of both sexes interested. “Golf needs to get a bit more modern and we can’t be doing with single-sex golf clubs in this day and age, especially not ones where majors are held,” English female golfer Charley Hull said.

The London-based Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation charity (WSFF) said all-male golf clubs hurt the image of the sport.

It said yesterday that its research showed 62 per cent of British adults disagreed that golf clubs should be able to have a male-only membership policy, while 58 per cent felt that the existence of male-only golf clubs made it less probable that women of all ages would play golf.

“We hope that this vote helps to secure the future of golf as a sport for both men and women in equal measure,” WSFF chief executive Ruth Holdaway said. “With golf returning to the Olympics in 2016, this is the time for members of the R&A to seize the initiative and position golf at the forefront of sport reform,” she said. AGENCIES