Royal & Ancient Golf Club to vote on allowing women members

One of the last bastions of all-male sporting privilege is considering a significant change after the Royal & Ancient Golf Club announced on Wednesday it had recommended that its members vote in favor of letting women join.

The 260-year-old ruling body of golf, based at the St. Andrews course in Scotland, has come under increasing commercial and political pressure to remove its “men-only” rule.

"Members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the founding club of the R&A, will vote on a motion to admit women as members," a spokesman said.

"The club's committees are strongly in favor of the rule change and are asking members to support it."

The vote is set for Sept. 18. A two-thirds majority will be required to change the club's rules. 

The R&A’s decision to put the issue to a vote of its roughly 2,500-strong membership represents a major shift for an organization that has previously defended its policy on the grounds that it is a private club.

The vote will be strictly concerning membership of the R&A. The Old Course at St. Andrews, where the club has its headquarters, is a public course over common land where women have always been welcome to play.

Responding to the R&A’s announcement, British Sports Minister Helen Grant said she hoped it would signal an end to the "anachronistic" single-sex stance common to many golf clubs.

"This is welcome news from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, and I urge its members to follow their committees' recommendations and vote 'yes' for women members," Grant said.

"It would mark a step in the right direction for the sport and, I would hope, encourage the remaining golf clubs that still have anachronistic single-sex member policies to follow suit."

For years, Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club was the symbol of men-only golf because it hosts the Masters Tournament every April. The club announced in August 2012 that it had invited women to join for the first time — former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore.

Even though Augusta National went 80 years without a female member, it had no policy that barred women from joining. The R&A has such a policy, and that's what will be voted on in September.

Peter Dawson, chief executive of the R&A, said he did not think Augusta National's decision had any bearing on his club.

"We noted what happened at Augusta," he said.

"They have their own procedure of doing things. We are doing this because of our governance role."

He also said the R&A did not feel pressure from any of its corporate sponsors, which were subjected to debate at the British Open.

"You can always ask that question: 'Why now? Why not 10 years ago?' The R&A have been considering this. It's been on our agenda, on our radar, for quite some time," Dawson said.

"The feeling is as society changes, as sport changes, as golf changes, it's something the R&A needs to do, and is doing now as being forward-looking as we can."

Al Jazeera and wire services