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St Andrews set for historic vote on women members

St Andrews has been an all-male bastion since it was founded 260 years ago © Getty Images

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On the same day Scotland votes on whether to become independent, The Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews will vote on whether to admit women members for the first time in its history.

The "Home of Golf", an all-male bastion since its founding 260 years ago, will vote on Thursday whether to admit women members. For the first time, the R&A is allowing its 2,500 worldwide members to vote by proxy.

"I think it's the right thing," R&A club secretary Peter Dawson said in May, "I hope that R&A members do what's right for golf."

While a "No" decision is the marginal favourite in the independence referendum, the R&A vote should be more clear-cut at its annual Business Meeting at St Andrews.

"We wouldn't be entering this if we didn't feel there was strong member support for it," Dawson has said. The club said a favourable vote would take effect immediately.

"We would hope to have a meaningful number of women become members in a reasonable time scale," the club said in a statement. "The first women members are likely to have made a significant contribution to the development of our sport."

It has been just over two years since Augusta National - the club that hosts The Masters - announced it had invited women to join for the first time. That ramped up the pressure on the R&A club, which, unlike Augusta, had a policy barring women from being members. Three all-male clubs are on The Open rotation - Royal St. George's, Royal Troon and Muirfield.

Dawson has said the R&A vote will have no bearing on whether The Open is played on those courses. Royal Troon is the 2016 host.

The push for change has come from outside golf, from a society that perceives the R&A to be out of touch and having outdated views on equality. The issue of allowing female members has been on the R&A's agenda for some time, Dawson says, but every year that goes by without the club having women members is damaging to its image.

The Royal & Ancient has been in charge of the Rules of Golf and The Open for years. Ten years ago, the club devolved administrative duties to a corporate structure that is called "The R&A," of which Dawson is chief executive.

That group is in charge of the Rules of Golf and organises The Open and other R&A championships. It has female employees but its committee and board roles are populated by members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, meaning there are currently no women in leadership roles.

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

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