Chiseling out this column last night - a tortuous, expletive-ridden process on a par with gouging a new face into Mount Rushmore with a bent soup spoon - I realised it will be my final gathering of weekly haverings before Armageddon kicks in.

Let's face it, whatever the result of Thursday's big Yes/No vote, we will throw our curtains back on Friday morning to be greeted by flaming, looted buildings, circling helicopters and distraught, dishevelled, shuffling mobs nibbling forlornly on the remnants of dead pigeons.

Yes, St Andrews will be quite a place come the end of the week. As you are all no doubt aware, that other vote - the decision on whether or not to allow women members into the Royal & Ancient Golf Club - also takes place on September 18.

Given the furious frenzy of nationwide politicking, pamphlet pushing and placard parading that's been going on recently, you wouldn't be surprised if some of the more bumbling, crusty R&A stalwarts got their polling cards mixed up amid these democratic dodderings and women ended up being banned from Scotland.

In a couple of days' time, there will be plenty of seismic activity rumbling along The Scores and down Grannie Clark's Wynd but I'd like to think we can say with a sizeable degree of confidence that the R&A's vote will go in favour of the Yes camp. Peter Dawson, the chief executive who retires from his position of power next year, will make sure of that. Like the politicians who are involved in the fate of the Union, the result of a tumultuous Thursday will, ultimately, decide Dawson's legacy.

The fact that the process of voting was changed to accept postal ballot papers, to allow members not based within hitting distance of the Auld Grey Toon to have their say, has opened the whole affair to the R&A's worldwide membership.

Make no mistake, there will be a few real, hardcore pockets of resistance, particularly amid some of the fustier sections of the more local membership.

Earlier this year, another male-only bastion, the Royal Burgess in Edinburgh, dropped proposals to admit women before it even got to an outright vote of membership, because of a lack of support. Change doesn't happen quickly or easily in this game.

Limiting the vote to a few hundred who would turn up on the day - as has been the case for numerous R&A voting activities down the seasons - would have probably left the whole thing on a knife edge. Opening it up to the club's global society of more than 2400 will be more representative of a modern, progressive outlook and should tip the scales.

The other question the voters have to decide on - and according to the grapevine this is the bone of contention - is whether then to fast-track in 15 female members.

It is believed these trailblazers amid the blazers cannot be women who are active in golf as it were, so that would rule out someone like Catriona Matthew, though she would be an obvious candidate.

The likes of Lady Angela Bonallack, wife of the former R&A secretary Sir Michael, Judy Bell, a past president of the United States Golf Association, and perhaps the decorated Scot, Belle Robertson, could be high on the list. Dawson, a decent, canny operator, is well aware of the damage that has been wrought on the game's image by the R&A club's men-only make-up, even though the 'other' R&A - the one formed under Dawson's steerings to deal with the game's global governance and commercial activities - has female representation.

As custodians of the game, the good, all-embracing work the organisation does throughout the world, be it junior golf, male and female participation, or disabled opportunities, is largely ignored because of this elephant of equality that lurks in the locker room.

The outpourings from various observers in recent years have grown in volume and Dawson has been besieged as never before. Some of it, of course, has been completely hysterical as golf, an easy target for many, was set upon. We probably all remember that national treasure, Clare Balding, displaying her jaw-dropping hypocrisy by boycotting the 2013 Open at all-male Muirfield because "morally I couldn't go" only for the gay presenter to hop over to Sochi for the Winter Olympics despite Russia's less than accommodating views on homosexuality.

Big businesses have also weighed into the issue. Giles Morgan, the global head of sponsorship and events with HSBC, which is a major corporate partner of the Open Championship, stated that "the R&A are clear that it's a very uneasy position for the bank".

You could argue that a bank that flings millions into sponsoring events in China, that country of questionable human rights, is an equally 'uneasy position' for it to deal with. Money talks in the modern era, though, and Dawson knows only too well how influential those words can be.

The cash that pours into the R&A coffers, through these commercial alliances, allows it to maintain its role the guardian of golf. It is a treasured duty and one that has been forged and nurtured over a couple of hundred years. A Yes vote on Thursday, and an end to the male-only membership as well as the damaging perceptions it continues to stoke up, will help safeguard that cherished role in these changing times. Even the most stubborn R&A member must see that.