ROYAL ST GEORGE'S: AN OPEN HELD AT A MALE-ONLY GOLF CLUB

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By OLIVER BROWN
R and A chief Peter Dawson refuses to be drawn into equality row over Open host's bar on female membership
A great urban myth is that Royal St George’s, venue for this summer’s Open Championship and a club still obstinately upholding their men-only membership rules, once put up a sign reading: “No dogs, no women.”
But these are barely more enlightened times on their little stretch of Kent coast. The decision to hold the world’s highest-profile golf event at such a bastion of patriarchal values sends out a most peculiar message.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is evangelical about broadening participation in the sport, enlisting two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington as an ambassador for this very cause. But on the tricky matter of bringing the Claret Jug to a place where women are denied equal status, Peter Dawson, the R&A’s chief executive, remains unapologetic.
“The fact that it’s male members-only is not something I’m overly concerned about,” Dawson said at today's Open Championship Press Conference at Sandwich. “I know that’s not as correct as it might be, but I do think that these things are a matter for the members.”
Royal St George’s has become notorious for its exclusivity: women are permitted to play only as members’ guests, while jacket and tie continues to be mandatory for men in three of the clubhouse rooms.
It is not as if the club has not had a chance to shake off a reputation for fustiness. In December 2001, members were surveyed as to whether they would like women to be allowed to join — and not a single one spoke out in favour.
Accusations of archaic practice hung heavy over the last Open here, in 2003, with the Scottish tourism minister going so far as to say clubs admitting solely men should be stripped of their right to host the tournament. Vivien Saunders, who won the women’s Open in 1977, has insisted that they ought only to profit financially if they open their doors to all.
The argument did not resonate with Dawson, who said: “We have never been particularly concerned about a club’s policy. We don’t use the Open for social engineering, if you’d like to call it that.
“There are still some single-sex clubs, whether men-only or women-only, up and down the country. It’s perfectly legal for them to do this, even under the new Equality Act. But there are very few of them, less than one per cent, so I don’t accept the argument that it seriously affects golf participation for either sex. “In all the surveys that I have seen conducted, it’s not a major issue among golfers. It’s a matter for members of golf clubs, and I’m quite sure that future generations may take a different view from the present one. That’s just the way of the world.”
The R and A can be relieved that its accommodating stance on the equality row has yet to bring the same censure suffered by Augusta National.
The home of the US Masters has endured a fierce backlash against its all-male code. In their usual dogmatic fashion, the Green Jackets refuse to relent, risking millions of dollars in sponsorship by telling companies such as Coca-Cola and Citigroup that they could not accept their money if this would expose them to a corporate campaign to change the rules.
But with a return to Royal St George’s, political pressure upon the R and A is likely to mount. In 2013, the Open moves to Muirfield, also steadfastly single-sex.
Ahead of the previous Open on these Kent dunes, Tessa Jowell, the then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, urged the organisation to “set an example” over discrimination. Eight years on, it is a call it still cannot bring itself to heed.