Muirfield votes to not admit female members; out of British Open rota
The all-male membership of Muirfield in Scotland has voted against admitting female members, a decision that now excludes it from the British Open rotation.
The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which owns the club, voted this week on ending the club's 244-year history of excluding female members, with a two-thirds majority required to make the change. Despite vocal support of the change from the club board, only 64 percent of the 648 voting members voted in favor of admitting female members.
A group of some 30 members wrote an open letter to the membership, imploring them to reject female members.
This vote was the result of a two-year process Muirfield undertook after coming under heavy criticism for its membership practices while hosting the 2013 Open Championship, won by Phil Mickelson. That was the 16th time Muirfield has hosted the Open.
The R&A had made it clear that it intends to keep the Open away from clubs that exclude women.
“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," said R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers in a Thursday 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.”
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews, of which the governing body known as the R&A is an off-shoot, admitted women as members for the first time in 2014 in 260 years of existence. Another Open host, Royal St. George's, admitted female members for the first time in 2015.
The 2016 Open host Royal Troon remains the only club in the active rotation that does not have single membership. Rather, there are separate memberships for men and women. The club is consulting members on possibly ending that practice, which would include ending having separate clubhouses.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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