It may not be the most beautiful links course in the world – the fairways are more brown than green in the summer – but it is widely considered to be one of the fairest courses on the Open rota. The R&A is counting on Muirfield putting on a good show, which it nearly always does. There remains some unease about how everything has been handled, but as another player told us, they don’t get a say in the matter. Hopefully, it will welcome us with open arms because it’s time for women to be respected.” It seems silly that we were really in that position in the first place. When we tee it up, it’s going to feel like we’ve finally got somewhere. I think it’s a test, but I’m happy to be going. “The R&A didn’t want to award it a men’s Open down the line if its not willing to take the women’s on. “I think it’s a test of its morals,” she says. LET star Bronte Law, above, believes the R&A is trying to make a statement of its own, though she still needs to be convinced that Muirfield is serious about making women feel more welcome. Never mind the 123 misogynists who still consider women to be second-class citizens. Still, it does seem somewhat perverse that the R&A waited just over three years before deciding that Muirfield was best equipped to host the biggest event on the women’s calendar in 2022. The argument is that it wouldn’t have admitted 20 female members since 2019 if it wasn’t. “If you would have said after the first vote that in six years’ time Muirfield will be the host course of the Women’s Open, people would have said, ‘Are you mad, there’s no way that is going to happen?’”Įveryone we spoke to at Murfield says the club is committed to righting the wrongs of its past. We’ve done some major work to the clubhouse, including creating a women’s locker room and the women are involved in the committee that is running the Women’s Open. Around a third of the membership intake over the last few years has been female. “What happened in 2016 did happen, but look what has changed since. “The thing is we can’t alter the past,” says Arthur. RELATED: Britain’s best links golf courses This time, 80.2 per cent of men determined that they cared more about The Open than excluding women, though 123 members still maintained their opposition.
The financial and reputational damage was so severe that a second vote was convened 10 months later. “The membership as a whole was pretty shocked, hurt and bruised by what had happened,” admits Peter Arthur, former captain of the club and chairman of the Women’s Open committee.Īt the time, Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, branded the decision “simply indefensible”, while the R&A responded by removing Muirfield from The Open rotation. When the postal ballot dropped, it fell 14 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to drop its gender segregation policy. The traditions and bigoted attitudes were so deep rooted that when the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which runs Muirfield, finally put forward a vote to admit women in March 2016, a group of more than 30 members launched a campaign to keep women out due to concerns over slow play and challenging existing lunch arrangements. Forbes magazine once described Muirfield as ‘Scotland’s snobbiest old-boy club’, while reports from the 2007 Senior Open Championship even claimed that one female European Tour executive had to eat in the kitchen because she wasn’t permitted in the clubhouse. When the world’s best players descend on Muirfield for the first time, they will do so knowing that the club’s membership may not be entirely happy to see them there.įor 273 years, women were treated with contempt and denied the opportunity – irrespective of ability or status – of becoming members. Except, it all feels a little convenient. It should be a cause for celebration, another strike in women’s quest for equality. But after pressure from the R&A, the East Lothian club flung open its doors to female members and is now weeks away from hosting its first-ever women’s Major Championship. As recently as six years ago, the club would revel in its status as one of golf’s last remaining male-only establishments. Golf World Top 100: Best Golf Courses and Resorts.