The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, whose hosting of next year’s AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield is so eagerly awaited, would sooner forget 19 May 2016.
That was the day when they welcomed the world’s media to the club to hear Henry Fairweather, then the captain, announce they had voted “Yes” to women members, only for things to go badly awry. The postal vote involving 616 of the 648 eligible voting members had fallen 14 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to alter the club’s constitution.
No women was one thing but, simultaneously, Muirfield was crossed from the Open Championship rota.
Embarrassing though it all was, Fairweather could not have handled the situation with more dignity. Yet behind the scenes it soon became clear that the weight of criticism from the media and others had left many of the members in shock.
By way of a first step towards recovery, the committee set out to ensure that the “No” voters were fully apprised of the error of their ways both from Muirfield’s point of view and that of the local community. Little by little, things started to change for the better. In March 2017, the first vote against adding women was overturned and the club was reinstated for inclusion on the Open rota. In July 2020, it was asked to host the AIG Women’s Open.
There was, though, more remedial work in the offing. For a start, the club recognised that communications, both internally and externally, had been a bit of a disaster. For example, their long silences in response to odd outbreaks of criticism had only served to set them further apart from the modern world.
“We went through a particularly difficult spell in ’16,” admits Douglas Connon, a former chairman of the Scottish Golf Union who was on the club’s board for both the “No” and the “Yes” votes. “It was blatantly obvious to me that things had to change. After all, the time had come when our members were saying that their children and their children’s children were asking questions about why they were playing at an all-male establishment.
“We know that we can’t cross out what’s happened in the past, but the past is the past. Today, things are different. We are all about progress.”
Muirfield is ready to illustrate that progress by throwing open its handsome gates in the first week of next August and welcoming the women professionals, their families, the spectators and the media to an AIG Women’s Open which they fully intend to be the best Women’s Open yet. At the same time, they cannot wait to see their links shine on the world stage for a first time since Phil Mickelson won the Open of 2013. Future Opens have been secured through 2025, with the Old Course at St Andrews, Royal Liverpool, Royal Troon and Royal Portrush playing host to the next four.
“A lot of us watched the Women’s Open and the Solheim Cup on TV and marvelled at the standard of play.”
Douglas Connon
A few days ago, GGP were invited to the club for a progress report at which the other attendees were Stuart McEwen, the club secretary, and his assistant secretary, Rob McGuire; Michael Spens, the chairman of the club’s communication group; and three further members of that party in Robin Dow, a former captain, the aforesaid Connon, and Lindsey Garden, an erstwhile Scottish women’s international. Garden, incidentally, is also serving on the club’s AIG Women’s Open committee, along with McEwen, McGuire and two other women members.
Spens, a former headmaster at Fettes College, volunteered that when the members first heard about the Women’s Open, they would ask if there was a date for the men’s.
“There’s a lot less of that now,” he said. “We still haven’t been told when we might get the Open and, though our chances of hosting it relatively soon have probably improved, there’s currently more interest in what’s happening next year.
“A lot of us,” he added, “watched the Women’s Open and the Solheim Cup on TV and marvelled at the standard of play. Now, we can’t wait to follow players like the Korda sisters (Nelly and Jessica), Anna Nordqvist, Jin Young Ko, Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall, to name just a few.”
At Muirfield, they nip round 18 holes of foursomes on either side of lunch, and what has happened since they were handed the Women’s Open has been in keeping with that pace of play. Currently, the club has 17 women members and, when it comes time for the championship, there could be 20-plus – a figure which is probably higher than that at most of the clubs who have turned from single-sex to mixed.
The officials said that they had sought advice from a couple of these other clubs, and that the one suggestion they had followed to the letter had been to set up an “integration committee” a year ahead of the women’s arrival. In the eyes of the members, it has achieved everything it set out to in that the atmosphere has changed not at all.
“The women probably deserve as much credit for this as the men,” said Connon. “The whole procedure has been seamless.”
McEwen, for his part, thought it a good thing that they had made plain all along that there would only be one type of member – and that all of the events, from medals to the dinners, were open to everyone.
“We don’t,” interjected Spence, “have a ladies’ section because our women are probably all members of another club where they have that facility. What we offer is good golf and lots of it.”
GGP asked Garden if she had felt nervous on her first day. “I was conscious of the newness of the situation,” she said. “You don’t want to do the wrong thing.”
For years, she had enjoyed the occasional round of golf at Muirfield but, once a member, she became ever more fascinated by the club’s rich history.
Muirfield, of course, is one of three clubs – St Andrews and Prestwick are the others – who, back in 1871, gave £10 apiece towards the cost of a Claret Jug to take the place of the Open belt which had been won outright by Young Tom Morris.
Dow, the club’s historian, pointed to Muirfield’s solid silver copy of the trophy in a museum-quality cabinet on the corridor between the coffee lounge and the dining room.
Muirfield has hosted 16 Opens; only St Andrews (29) and Prestwick (24) have more. In addition to Mickelson, the club also counts Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Nick Faldo among its champions.
That so many among the women professionals might want to see these treasures is down to Mike Whan, the LPGA’s former commissioner. Whan always encouraged his charges to copy their founding members in caring as much about their tour and its history as they cared about their individual careers.
Early next year, some 500 volunteers from Muirfield and other venues will be signing up to serve as volunteers for the AIG Women’s Open. What is more, you would like to think that not a few of the Muirfield contingent will be converts from the ranks of those who voted “No” on that dark day in ’16.
I asked Spens if he could visualise this club of a million traditions having a woman captain at some point.
“Maybe not tomorrow,” he replied, “but of course I can visualise it. Why ever not?”
Top: No. 18 and the clubhouse at Muirfield Golf Club
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