IN some respects, it was just another Monday-morning golf outing.
In one vital respect, though, it was a little bit of history in the making - not least because the location was the New Course at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews.
Lady Angela Bonallack, a six-time Curtis Cup player - and, of course, the wife of one-time R��&��A secretary Sir Michael - became the first woman to take part in a match as a member of the distinguished club. That the match - an annual friendly against the Links Trust - ended in a tie is worth noting in passing; but one could not help think back to that momentous occasion last September, when 85 per cent of the R&A's 2,500 members voted to drag the place into the 21st century and admit women as members for the first time in its 260-year history.
The vote, as the club noted, was "overwhelming". One pointed reaction came from the PGA of America, which said that women had played, and would continue to play, a key role in golf. What was more, women represented the biggest growth market in the sport. "Every step to make golf more inclusive is good for the game," it said. Where Lady Angela teed off yesterday, many other women members will now follow. Not before time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article