NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | By last week, members of Muirfield, otherwise known as the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, were no longer peeved that the Open championship of 2028 had been given to Royal Lytham & St Annes rather than to them. They had other things to think about. Most notably their hosting of the 2026 Women’s Amateur Championship, an event first held in 1893.
The competitors, many of them high up on the World Amateur Golf Ranking list, arrived last Sunday to find that they had the run of the men’s changing rooms. As for the male members, they used alternative facilities as scores of them served as volunteers.
“The women’s championship deserved our attention, “ said Stuart McEwen, the current Muirfield secretary. “The Open is for another day.
“Our members were carried away with what they were seeing over the week. Almost all the girls were taking aim on professional careers with a view to being the next Nelly Kordas and Charley Hulls.”
Martin Sampedro, the Spaniard who won last year’s Women’s Amateur at Nairn, was among them, while Farah O’Keefe, who lost to Sampedro in the 2025 final, is another who could take over from the stars of the moment.
One of the reasons this Women’s Amateur Championship was right up Muirfield’s street was because it would have reminded its members of how things were when they held the ’13 Open, the one which was won by Phil Mickelson. That week, there was an acceptable 140,000-strong crowd which allowed their members to get close to the action. Not only that, but people who decided on a last minute visit to the championship only had to jump on a bus in Edinburgh, or wherever, and buy tickets at the gate.
The club would have expected much the same spectator figures at the next time of asking but, after that rigmarole of 2016 when the club voted against taking women members, it was promptly removed from the Open championship rota.
“The women’s championship deserved our attention,” said Stuart McEwen, club secretary.
ROSS PARKER, R&A VIA GETTY IMAGES
By the start of the following year, the dissenters had a change of heart and discussions with the R&A resumed as to when the club might hold what will be their 17th Open. Heaven knows whether it was seen as some sort of punishment, but they were given the ’22 AIG Women’s Open by way of a starting point. It was one which the men rather liked. The women were endlessly courteous and party after party wanted to be shown round the trophy cabinets and other memorabilia.
There were rumours that the club might hold the ’27 Open, the one which is to be held at St Andrews, while the next guess was ’28.
While Murifield, once it had been reinstated in the conversation, had been eager to go along with most of what the R&A asked of them, there were important areas where they disagreed. One of the R&A’s first requests, for instance, had been for the 140,000-strong crowd which the club had known in ’13 to be upped to 240,000.
“Bigger and better” was becoming the new mantra and was backed by the R&A’s “space analysis” experts who decreed that an extra 100,000 would not be a problem. (Is it possible that those specialists thought that the numbers would be evenly distributed over the 18 holes?)
McEwen could understand that changes have to happen, what with R&A wanting to use their profits for the development of golf around the world and for keeping pace with the prize-money at other majors. Yet at a traditional club such as theirs, he felt it was crucial that they should hold fast to their core values: “We’ve got to make sure that we don’t lose sight of what golf is all about.”
How much more McEwen’s words have had to recommend them since LIV came on the scene. Though players who fell for the idea coined millions, it was not too long before the kind of “wow factor” which became headlines for a few days when Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, began to fade.
Though adjustments to the course were similarly not in favour, the club happily agreed to a bigger practice area, one which will be set out at the expense of the R&A who own the fields that run from the Greywalls Hotel to the Renaissance. That new facility isn’t in place yet, largely because the present practice ground works well for the women and will forever be favoured by the members.
So why was Royal Lytham given the ’28 Open ahead of sundry other possibilities such as Muirfield, Portmarnock and Turnberry?
It seems that Lytham, which is holding the AIG Women’s Open at the end of next month, could not have been better-placed to handle two Opens in the space of three years. The Lancashire club has a new and much improved 11th hole, along with lavish practice amenities down the far end of the layout. The idea, here, is that competitors can be scuttled up and down in buggies.
What everyone knows for sure is that the links at Muirfield are so perfect that they could hold the Open tomorrow. … Getting to the club can only be a headache, but isn’t that the same everywhere else?
However, in the last few months, the hierarchy decided that while the scuttling players up and down in buggies would work well for the men, it no longer sounded appropriate for the women and will not be in use next month. The R&A had come to the conclusion that they had hit the proverbial nail on the head with the way things were set out at last year’s championship at Royal Porthcawl. There, everything from the practice ground to the first tee had centred around a tented village full of good food and fun. Competitors and fans alike could not have mingled better.
Lytham is understandably proud to take on this Open double, especially when it can only be good news for shop-keepers, hoteliers and those who let out their houses. But not everyone living close to the course is of the same opinion. “No sooner will the contractors’ stands have been tidied up after the women’s week than work will be starting on ’28,” said one of the residents. “We can only expect more noise, more disturbances.”
Last week at Muirfield, there was the odd comment that they might get their 17th Open in 2030. They knew it was only guess-work, but was it possible that the ’29 version might go back to Royal Portrush, who were promised three Opens when they agreed with everything recommended by the R&A some years ahead of their championship of 2019. (The second of their promised Opens was held in 2025.)
What everyone knows for sure is that the links at Muirfield are so perfect that they could hold the Open tomorrow. There are all the humps and hollows on and around the greens that you get at any of the American majors, while the fairways can be as tight, and the rough as long as the R&A might want. Getting to the club can only be a headache, but isn’t that the same everywhere else?
Doing as visiting American fans or players in taking a helicopter from Edinburgh or Glasgow airport to the gardens of the Greywalls Hotel will be the answer for the rich and famous. But, once there, would they want to find themselves surrounded by anything close to the 300,000 who will be descending on Royal Birkdale in three week’s time?
TOP PHOTO: ROSS PARKER, R&A VIA GETTY IMAGES
