Private golf clubs such as Muirfield and Royal Troon are exactly that – private – and owned collectively by their members ("Sorry but there's no reasoning with a dodo", The Herald, August 27 & Letters, August 28).
Their annual subscriptions pay for all the running costs and maintenance, just like the owner of a private dwelling.
There may be prestige and some modest income from these courses being used for the Open Championship every few years, but playing members don't get much benefit. They have to suffer their course and surrounds being turned into a building site for several months before the event, and then being a muddy quagmire for weeks afterwards.
And it is the St Andrews Golf Links Committee which owns and leases the Old Course, not the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, which only has limited playing rights at other times. There is a popular and well-run women-only golf club based in St Andrews, but no-one seems to criticise that club for unfair discrimination.
One practical problem for most male-only clubs is that extensive alterations or extensions to existing clubhouses would be required to provide the separate changing accommodation and other facilities for women, and in these difficult times many clubs may find it difficult to finance such developments – unless new women members were willing to pay for them, of course.
The exclusive and expensive Augusta National Club is being praised for "admitting women members". In fact all it has done is invite two of the wealthiest and most high-profile women in America to join, and we don't even know if they have full playing rights or access to all the premises and facilities.
When Augusta creates, say, 100 full membership places for women and invites applications for these it might then be appropriate to hold it up as a good example.
Iain AD Mann,
7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.
I live in Ayrshire. In a stretch from Prestwick to Irvine, there are four male-only "ghettos" and four open to all and a women-only club.
Women can play at Prestwick, Royal Troon, Western Gailes and Glasgow Gailes, they have facilities regarding lockers, changing and so on and they may enter the clubhouses and enjoy food and drink, as many do every week. As a mere male I may only enter the clubhouse of the Ladies Golf Club of Troon on the invitation of a member.
I am a member of Kilmarnock (Barassie), and Royal Troon golf clubs. I do not consider myself a "bully boy" or a "bigot" nor do I think I am " narrow-minded or intolerant" toward lady golfers. I welcome them with open arms.
Jim Torbett,
24 Ottoline Drive, Troon.
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