The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews show no sign of following the lead of Augusta National Golf Club’s decision to admit women members for the first time in their history.
Augusta, the host club for the Masters, broke with their all-male tradition of 80 years standing this week in inviting former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and financier Darla Moore to be their first female members.
The move follows years of pressure on the exclusive Georgia club to admit women, but similar pressure in the UK to end the all-male preserve of the Royal and Ancient, as well as several high-profile golf clubs, has had little effect.
The R&A’s special position as the ruling body for the game in all parts of the world other than the USA and Canada where the inclusive USGA are administrators has intensified attention on them, as does their policy of taking the Open Championship to courses owned by other all-male clubs in Britain.
As soon as next year The Open will return to Muirfield, the course of the all-male Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and the championship rota also includes Royal Troon and the Royal St George’s club at Sandwich, both of which have no female members.
The R&A released a statement on Tuesday underlining their present policy but declining to reveal whether the issue would be put to members in the near future.
”We read the announcement from Augusta National with great interest and we congratulate Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore on their membership,” said a spokesman for the club.
”The Rules of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews specify a male membership and this policy remains a matter for our Members to determine”.
The pressure on Augusta intensified at this year’s Masters when attempts by the club to promote a new golf development programme to make golf more accessible led to further questions about the all-male membership.
In addition, Augusta’s stance was proving embarrassing to the PGA Tour, which has a rule stipulating that host courses of its tournaments require inclusive membership but waived it for the Masters, one of the four major championships.
Peter Dawson, the chief executive of R&A plc that administers golf and runs the Open separate from the everyday workings of the club, is on holiday but has persistently stated that the club is ”not going to involve itself in social engineering” by insisting host clubs for the oldest major are inclusive.
No-one from the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers was available for comment, but Scotland’s greatest female golfer believes they and others should follow Augusta’s lead.
”I think this is great news, particularly at such a prestigious course as Augusta National,” said former British Open champion Catriona Matthew. ”It is a nice step to seeing more equality in golf, which is only right in the world we live in today.”