Spiers on Sport: it's time to end the no-women bastions in Scottish golf

Graham Spiers

Tuesday 21 August 2012

If I were Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R and A, I would be feeling a mite uncomfortable in my finely-crafted, leather-stitched shoes today.

New Augusta member Condoleezza Rice

The startling news to fly across the Atlantic this week that Augusta National Golf Club had just chosen to end 80 years of dubious tradition by admitting its first two female members must make the doggedly all-male Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews feel distinctly hot under the collar.

Why? Well, it’s a pretty sorry pass when Augusta National, a fine place but one steeped in all-male chauvinism, shows you a clean pair of heels in embracing the modern age. Pressure through adverse publicity had borne down on Augusta for years to junk its ways and admit women as members. But – and this is what makes it worse for Dawson and the R and A – that isn’t the whole story of Augusta National’s sudden epiphany. The greater truth is that Billy Payne, the soon-to-retire Augusta chairman, is a fine, charming man, whom many believe has been privately embarrassed to be associated with his club’s all-male ways in 2012. In admitting Condoleezza Rice and financier Darla Moore as members, Payne has made his lasting legacy a breakthrough which he himself has been intent on for years. “This is a joyous day for our club,” Payne said of the admittance of Rice and Moore as members. Joyous, really? That statement summed up Payne’s true intentions all along. On Scottish soil – and specifically at St Andrews and Muirfield – this vexed issue is now set to rear its head again as a consequence of Augusta National’s bold decision. Dawson has a two-fold headache to deal with. First, his very own club, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, with its 2,400 membership, and an alleged beacon to the game of golf all around the world, remains stubbornly all-male. Second, Dawson and his R and A committee are next summer taking the Open Championship back to Muirfield which, like the club at St Andrews, remains men-only. Unless the newspapers suddenly start hiring sociopaths in their 80s, there is going to be a fresh song-and-dance about why Dawson and the R and A deem it fit to take the greatest golf tournament in the world to a venue of such arch discrimination. I have to say I like Dawson a lot. He is extremely charming, and many like me find him a very able R and A chief executive. He is endlessly polite and accommodating. But I can’t help asking myself this: like Billy Payne, does Dawson in his heart of hearts feel embarrassed by all-male golf policies in this day and age? As someone once said: “It is not just the doing, but the seen to be doing...’ It may be one argument, as Dawson puts it, for a private club to enjoy “freedom of association”. But what of the perception? What sort of message does a prestigious men-only club send to the rest of golf? Congratulations, Mr Payne and Augusta. Now come on, Peter.

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Spiers on Sport: it's time to end the no-women bastions in Scottish golf

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