Straffan, Ireland … As a former Open Champion Rory McIlroy was asked after his opening round 67 at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open what he thought of the decision by the R & A to drop Muirfield from the Open Championship rota.

The Scotland club voted 64% to 36% to retain its all-male membership.

The decision has since been condemned in golf as completely out of touch with what is proper in 2016.   The R & A reacted sensibly and quickly in distancing itself from anything to do with Muirfield.

McIlroy was asked if the R&A’s decision to drop Muirfield from the Open rotation surprised or shocked him.

Rory McIlroy on route to a 79 on the first day of the 2013 Open at Muirfield.

And his answer was pure, honest McIlroy and take into account he shot rounds of 79 and 75 to easily miss the halfway cut.

“As an Open Champion, I don’t feel like it makes any difference,” he said.

“I probably had my worst professional week of my career at Muirfield, so I don’t feel that bad not going back to be honest. My memories are Muirfield aren’t very good. Bigger picture, it’s a great golf course, but there’s so many other great golf courses that we play on the Open rota that we’re not going to miss one.

“I think it’s more their loss than it is the R&A’s or our loss. If that’s what they want to do, obviously it’s a free world and they can do that. But they must have known that it was going to cause this sort of controversy.”

Qn: And they are right?

RORY McILROY: Of course they are right. It’s taken long enough. Even R&A only started letting women join last year or whatever it was. It’s about time that they did.

Qn: Is the potential damage to golf’s image more important?

RORY McILROY: Definitely, when we have such a strong ladies tour; we’ve got the Olympics coming up, which is all about including everyone. The girls are going to get so much exposure from being in the Olympics with the men, like they were at the U.S. Open last year. So it’s 2016 and times move on. Women make more than men these days, maybe as much as we don’t like it or whatever. It is what it is. I think everyone should have the opportunity to join a club if they want to.

“Yeah, I think for golf’s image, as we are trying to break out of this stuffy, old; we are trying to become more with the times and trying to do things to make golf faster, make golf cooler, make more people included. Yeah, today wasn’t a great day to do that.