Mcilroy: It was obscene Muirfield needed two votes on women members
● ‘Obscene’ that two ballots were needed ● Horrendous that 123 members voted no ● Unimpressed by its return to Open rota
Rory Mcilroy says he “won’t be having many cups of tea with the members” when the Open Championship returns to Muirfield and claims it is “obscene” that two ballots were required to open its doors to women.
The four-time major winner was outspoken after the initial vote last May fell just 14 votes short, saying that he hoped the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which owns and runs Muirfield, can “see some sense one day”.
He has now admitted that “sort of” happened following a second ballot which saw 80.2 per cent of the members who took part in the poll supporting the proposal and providing the two-thirds majority required for the rules of the East Lothian club to be changed after 273 years.
However, Mcilroy described the fact that 123 members still voted no as “horrendous” and said he “won’t have a great taste in my mouth” on future visits to Muirfield, where, with the revered venue having been restored to the R&A’S rota, the Open Championship is now likely to return for its 16th staging in either 2022 or 2023.
“Muirfield wouldn’t be one of my favourite Open rota courses, so no matter the decision yesterday, if it had been kept off the Open Championship rota, I wouldn’t have been that unhappy,” he said, referring to a missed cut there in 2013.
“Obviously I was outspoken about this the first time around. I mean, in this day and age, where you’ve got women that are like the leaders of certain industries, and women that are heads of state and not to be able to join a golf course? It’s obscene. It’s ridiculous.
“They sort of saw sense [with the second vote], but I still think [the fact] that it got to this stage is horrendous. We’ll go back and we’ll play the Open Championship, because they will let women members in, but every time I go to Muirfield now I won’t have a great taste in my mouth.”
Referring to the fact that just under 20 per cent of members in the second ballot voted “no”, the world No 3, speaking in Florida at a press conference ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, added: “It’s horrendous. I just don’t get it.
“We’ll go back there for the Open Championship at some point, but I won’t be having many cups of tea with the members afterwards.”
Mcilroy was criticised recently for playing golf with US president Donald Trump, who has been widely condemned for his attitudes towards women. The Northern Irishman said he had been “taken aback” by the flak directed at him.
“It’s not as if we were talking foreign policy out there,” said the Northern Irishman. “We were talking golf. Whether you respect the person who holds that position or not, you respect the office that he holds. Golf was our common ground, nothing else. I’ve travelled all over the world and have been fortunate enough to befriend people from many different countries, beliefs and cultures.”
As Arnold Palmer’s passing last September was being marked at Bay Hill on the eve of his annual invitational event on the PGA Tour, another golfing legend was being honoured yesterday on the other side of the Atlantic. In the most fitting way possible, too, with the European Tour’s prized Player of the Year Award being renamed The Seve Ballesteros Award.
The move comes just under six years after the Spaniard passed away at the age of 54 and will provide a perfect legacy for the player, who was at the forefront as European golfers first started to make their mark in the US, as well, of course, as playing such a pivotal role in the Ryder Cup landscape changing forever.
Ballesteros would certainly have approved of its first recipient, having been claimed by Henrik Stenson, who was an overwhelming winner in the 2016 vote by his fellow professionals after becoming Open champion in sensational style at Royal Troon, as well as winning the Race to Dubai for a second time in four seasons.
“Having won the Players’ Player of the Year award once before I know how special this award is,” said the Swede, who, like Ballesteros, plays the game with as mile and, similarly, goes out of his way to provide entertainment, both on the course and in media centres. “I am truly honoured to be the first player to receive it after it has been renamed The Seve Ballesteros Award. Seve was one of my idols and an icon of the game, which makes it that much more special to receive this from my peers.”
The decision to rename the award in honour of Ballesteros was made by European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley at a gathering at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, the venue where Ballesteros won his 50th, and last, European Tour title in the 1995 Open de España. It is doubly appropriate as it also comes in the year when Ballesteros would have celebrated his 60th birthday – on Masters Sunday, 9 April.
“No golfer did more to popularise the game in Europe than Seve Ballesteros and it is a great privilege to be able to ensure that his name will live on, on the European Tour, with this award,” said Pelley. “He was one of the most talented and exciting golfers ever to play our great sport and above all he was a players’ player, which is what makes this award even more appropriate. It is also fitting that the inaugural award goes to Henrik Stenson following his win in last year’s Open – the major championship won three times by Seve himself – and in a thrilling manner at Royal Troon that was reminiscent of the great man at his best.”
Javier Ballesteros, Seve’s eldest child and a professional himseld on the Alps Tour, will present the award to Stenson during the BMW PGA Championshipat went worth club in May. “It is a huge tribute to our father which will continue to keep his legacy alive,” said Ballesteros jnr. “We are thrilled with the idea that the award voted for by the players themselves will be the one that lives on into the future and bears his name. Our father grew up and developed as a player on the European Tour and I’m sure he would be thrilled and very proud of such a recognition.”
The Seve Ballesteros Award has the names of all the European Tour members who have won majors inscribed around a central image of his famous fist-pumping celebrations on the 18th green at St Andrews after his Open win there in 1984. Around that is a quote from the European Tour’s founding father John Jacobs, who sadly passed away in January. It simply says: “Seve’s supreme talent, flair and passion for golf inspired millions around the world.”
“No golfer did more to popularise the game in Europe than Seve Ballesteros, but, above all, he was a players’ player, which makes this award even more appropriate” KEITH PELLEY