As the Brits would say, I’m gobsmacked. The R&A has moved into the 21st Century by dropping Muirfield from it’s British Open golf championship rotation until they get with the program. Its members voted against admitting women. Again. The vote was close, so there may be hope for these gents yet. If they’re anything like their brethren at Augusta, though, this may take a wee friggin’ while.
Then, in the spirit of you can’t make this stuff up, Peter Alliss, veteran BBC commentator on all things golf, suggested that women who want to play golf at Muirfield should marry a member. Yep. He really said that. An M-R-S for Muirfield. Now Peter, bless him, acknowledges that this is a very ’emotive’ subject and goes on to validate his men-only point by saying that women wouldn’t want to join anyway. They’d have to pay thousands of pounds for an entry fee and subscriptions and why do that when they can play for nothing – as someone’s wife?! Yay. Then he went on to say that single women might have to wait eight to ten years in a queue for membership, were they allowed to join, and face paying thousands of pounds for maybe 20 games of golf a year. (Hate when that happens.) Thanks for watching out for my wallet old bean.
P.S.
I think old Pete could use an attitude adjustment, don’t you? Small batch bourbon works particularly well for me and I’m more than willing to share.
The Scoop from Golf Digest:
“It’s a ‘no’ then. To the no doubt complete astonishment of everyone outside golf, the (not-so) Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield have voted against admitting women members. While most of the 800-strong membership did cast their ballots in favor of change — 64 percent versus 36 percent — they narrowly failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required by the club’s constitution.
As a result, the R&A has swiftly decided to remove Muirfield, arguably the best course in the Open Championship rota, from consideration for hosting a future Open — or at least until the club’s membership policy is rectified.
“The R&A has considered today’s decision with respect to The Open Championship. The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and going forward we will not stage the Championship at a venue that does not admit women as members,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement. “Given the schedule for staging The Open, it would be some years before Muirfield would have been considered to host the Championship again. If the policy at the club should change we would reconsider Muirfield as a venue for The Open in future.”
