Miami: Rory McIlroy ripped Muirfield for needing two votes and more than two centuries to admit women members, saying it was “obscene” that the Scottish club waited so long.
Muirfield voted on Tuesday to allow women members for the first time in its storied history, and while it was enough to have the club returned to the rotation of potential British Open venues, it came too late to avoid McIlroy’s ire.
“In this day and age, where you’ve got women that are 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. Like, it’s ridiculous.”
Muirfield had been removed from the British Open rotation when a first vote on allowing women as members failed a year ago. The new vote received 80 per cent approval.
“So they sort of saw sense,” the Irishman and world No. 3 McIlroy said on Wednesday.
“And yeah, 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.”
Despite the approval of women members there were 123 members of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, who voted against the idea.
“It’s horrendous,” McIlroy said.
“I don’t get it. So we’ll go back there for the Open Championship at some point, and I won’t be having many cups of tea with the members afterwards.”
McIlroy, a four-time major champion, missed the cut when the Open was last staged at Muirfield in 2013.
The 27-year-old lacks only the Masters to complete a career Grand Slam, something he could achieve by capturing the green jacket next month at Augusta National, which itself only admitted its first female members in August 2012.
