Muirfield, and venue for this year’s 142nd Open Championship, will not be ‘bullied’ into having to admit female members to the men-only Scotland golf club.
This is the view of Peter Dawson, CEO with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and organisers of golf’s oldest Major set to tee-off on July 13th on the course to the east of Edinburgh.
After Augusta National, and venue for the recent Masters, allowed women to become members, Dawson addressed the issue of women members at Muirfield on Tuesday from within his office that overlooks the first fairway on the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Muirfield is strictly a men-only club however women are allowed access to the Scotland course to the east of Edinburgh as visitors while the club also has hosted two Curtis Cup’s, a Ryder Cup type format tournament with female amateurs from Great Britain and Ireland against a team from the USA.
Peter Dawson, CEO at the R & A and saying Muirfield will not be ‘bullied’ into allowing women members.
And while Muirfield is also one of three clubs on the Open Championship rota to have men-only membership, the others being Royal Troon and St. Andrews, Dawson indicated he will not ‘bully’ those clubs into changing their men-only member policy.
“I understand that any kind of discrimination is a complete no, no but this single sex issue is not completely what it seems, and while I understand the criticism the R & A receives, since 2004 we have split the commercial activities away from a private members club with women working in those areas, so we are still on that direction of travel,” said Dawson.
“There is about 3,000 golf courses in Britain about one per cent have a single sex policy, so it’s not rife so there is not as many as the public would perceive when they read about this issue,” said Dawson
“Of that one per cent half of them are women-only clubs and there is historical reason for that as they could not get into men’s clubs at the time but 100 years plus it’s quite different nowadays, and these women’s clubs are fiercely independent by and large.
“Also it’s very interesting the majority of single-sex clubs are here in Scotland and much of it reflects the sharing of golf courses by a number of different clubs.
“It’s the situation here in St. Andrews where the courses are public with the five various clubs sharing the courses.
“But there is also nothing wrong under the UK legislation with a single-sex club as long as they behave under the equality act as far as guest access is concerned, and which Muirfield certainly does.
“And to think the R & A might say to a club like Muirfield ‘you are not going to have The Open anymore unless you change your policy’ is frankly a bullying position that we would never take.
“Muirfield has a huge history when it comes to the Open Championship and this will be the 16th time that is has been played there, and who are we to say what they should do as they are behaving perfectly legally.
“We borrow Muirfield’s golf course for two or three weeks every 10 years, and that’s all we do.
“The belief it sends out the wrong message is overblown. It’s not our role to attack clubs that are behaving legally.
“I think it is right that private clubs can determine their own destiny. It’s like freedom of speech. You may not agree with what someone says, but you will defend their right to say it. I feel similarly about private clubs, especially as it’s such a small number.
“I totally believe in equality but I also believe there are times when men need to socialise with men, and women need to socialise with women. I think it reflects the majority opinion.
“So from a personal point of view this sends out a dreadful message to the world is considerably overblown.
“The R & A have used this term ‘social engineering’ in the past but now we are not going to be using it again, but then we don’t see it as our role to attack golf clubs that are behaving perfectly legally.
“So when you see articles banging the drum about notices saying ‘Dogs on a lead. No women’ I doubt that every existed and if ever it did, it was 100 years ago, and all that does is stall the direction of travel in golf.”
Dawson commented that people ‘inside the game’ when reading such articles would say: “What do they know about the game’, and that he would like to see a much more reasoned debate in the media than he has seen, and that would also help what he also says is ‘the direction of travel’.
And Dawson cited former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown as an example of the mis-informed.
“When Gordon Brown stood up, and very opportunistically, when Augusta National announced two new women members, he did it that same night, so it was obviously for politically gain,” said Dawson.
“He got up and said: ‘If they can do it in South Carolina, why can’t they do it in Scotland?’. The fact of the matter he had not done his research as to where Augusta was, and that just made people decide ‘Well, we are not going to pay any attention to him as all he’s doing is making some clever, unresearched remark.
“So all that does is stall the direction of travel.”
