Minister shuns men-only golf club

GOLF is Scotland’s national sport, but the country’s most popular politician has decided to boycott the game.

Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, will not be attending the British Open, to be held from July 18.

This year’s tournament will be hosted by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield, which is a menonly golf club.

Salmond, a golf fan, previously criticised the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews for failing to offer Louise Richardson, principal and vicechancellor of St Andrews University, membership.

Although Richardson is not a keen golfer, it was pointed out that membership of the Royal and Ancient was bestowed on her male predecessors — as the heads of Scotland’s oldest university — as a matter of course.

Other all-male clubs that host the British Open are Royal Troon and Royal St Georges.

In July 2008, the St Andrewsbased Ladies’ Golf Union lifted a ban on taking female tournaments to men-only clubs such as Muirfield and another British Open venue, Royal Troon.

The US Golf Association does not allow clubs with single-sex policies to host the US Open.

Last year, one of the last bastions of male membership, Augusta National, home of the US Masters, bowed to pressure and finally admitted its first women members.

The club responded to a welter of criticism by inviting former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and the South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first women to wear the famous green jackets that signify membership.

Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, has previously defended the club’s right to decide its own membership policy.