Royal Troon Golf Club now seems certain to approve the admission of women members prior to this July’s Open Championship after all.
A statement released by club secretary Stephen Anthony revealed a special general meeting of the club will be held on July 1 – two weeks before the championship – “proposing fundamental changes to the club, allowing women members”.
It had been estimated by both Royal Troon and the R&A that the consultation process the club had undertaken with its membership would not be completed until at least a month after the championship.
However, captain Martin Cheyne said that a detailed consultation of the membership had found that opening the club to women was supported by three-quarters of those who had participated.
This has allowed them to call the SGM earlier than anticipated with some degree of confidence the proposal will be approved.
“Following our consultation with members, the committee of Royal Troon Golf Club is moving to will propose that the constitution of the club is changed to allow women members to join on exactly the same basis as the men,” said Mr Cheyne.
“Recently we spoke about the need for our club to reflect the modern society in which we exist and I am pleased that a large majority of members who responded to our survey agree and support opening the club to women.
“Looking ahead to the Open Championship, we want Scotland to be proud of Royal Troon Golf Club and the Ladies’ Golf Club, Troon as we jointly host this most prestigious competition in front of a worldwide audience.
“That is why we are moving quickly to a special general meeting and to have these matters resolved as swiftly as possible following our consultation. We will make a further statement after that meeting.”
There’s little doubt that the process to consult about women members at Royal Troon – which had already been ongoing for over a year – has accelerated considerably since the original timescale was first revealed a month and a half ago.
This has been partly because of the reaction to the news that the process had slowed at that time, and by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers’ decision two weeks ago to reject admission of women members.
The R&A’s immediate decision to removed the HCEG’s Muirfield from the Open rota of host courses was certainly a sharp reminder to Royal Troon – which would not have lost this year’s Open in any case because preparations and logistics are too far advanced.
It’s also unlikely that the recent action on Muirfield directly influenced the Troon membership’s views as the consultation was already well advanced by the time the East Lothian club made their decision.
However Royal Troon have recognised the possible media firestorm that failure to complete admission of women to their club would have both on the championship and reputation of the club, and been prepared to act swiftly.