After over 260 years, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland will allow female members. The club voted on the subject matter on Thursday and 85% of the 2,500 worldwide members were in favor of the historic change.
The vote was effective immediately and the club also voted to fast-track a "significant" number of women to join R&A within the next few months. The significant number was not disclosed, but previous reports indicated that as many as 15 women could be admitted in the near future. R&A is the second world renowned club to approve such a measure within the past couple of years, following the footsteps of Augusta National in Georgia, the home of the annual Masters Tournament.
R&A's vote also reversed the club's explicitly written policy that banned women from the facilities. Augusta National had no such policy in writing, but the club hadn't allowed women members since it opened in 1932. On August 21, 2012, Augusta invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina Financier Darla Moore to become the club's first female members. The movement to allow women at Augusta became more fervent after the club began allowing blacks in 1990.
And now R&A's motion to allow female members is likely to change such prohibitions at many other private golf clubs because it's the oldest and most prestigious in the world. The club's chief executive, Peter Dawson, was pleased with the vote and is looking forward to a mixed membership.
"I can confirm that The Royal & Ancient Golf of St. Andrews is now a mixed membership club," he said in a statement issued by the R&A website. "This is a very important and positive day in the history of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The R&A has served the sport of golf well for 260 years, and I am confident that the club will continue to do so in future with the support of all its members, both women and men."
This was perhaps Dawson's final overhaul of the historic club, as he announced earlier this year that he will be stepping down in September of 2015. The decision comes after years of pressure, despite single-sex clubs still existing in the U.K. Some allow only men and others allow only women and they're legal, but R&A faced criticism because of its illustrious history and its paramount representation of the game of golf.
As the game of golf continues bigger and the participation of female players increases, the R&A likely believed this decision was best for all.
