Rory McIlroy was left furious after his wish for The Open Championship to be held at Muirfield was blocked yet again due to a ban on female golfers at the club. The private members' club in Scotland voted against allowing women to join, leading to its removal from The Open rota.
Muirfield's Ban on Female Golfers
The Open is being held this year at Royal Birkdale in Southport, a club that has hosted the major championship 10 times and two Ryder Cups. McIlroy had been keen for Muirfield to host for the first time since 2013, but the refusal to admit women as members thwarted his hopes. The Masters champion urged those who voted against female membership to "see sense."
McIlroy said in 2016: "It's more of a loss to Muirfield than it is to us. It's not right to host the world's biggest tournament at a place that does not allow women to be members. Hopefully Muirfield can see some sense and we can get it back on The Open rota."
R&A Response and Further Votes
As a result of the ban, the R&A confirmed they would not allow Muirfield on The Open rota until the rules changed. A further vote was held in 2017, but the same outcome followed, leaving McIlroy furious. He said: "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. In this day and age where you've got women that are the leaders of certain industries and heads of state and not to be able to join a golf course? I mean, it's obscene. It's ridiculous. It's horrendous. I don't get it. 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."
Ban Lifted, but Wish Denied Again
Eventually, the Muirfield members reneged and the ban was lifted. McIlroy was pleased and proposed that The Open be held there in 2028, but Royal Lytham & St Annes was chosen instead. The 37-year-old said: "It would be wonderful if it was [there]. I'm not privy to those conversations, but Muirfield deserves to be back on the Open rota. They rectified the issues they had. It's a wonderful course. It's one of the best courses on the rota and in the UK. As well, it has to commercially make sense."
He added: "I think Mark Darbon [R&A chief executive] has been brought in to make the Open Championship commercially viable. I would say Muirfield, that area, North Berwick, that would probably be one of the more commercially viable Opens."
