Royal and Ancient Golf Club invites two new female members

Towards the end of 2015 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, one of the most prolific golf clubs in the world, announced that it was adding two new female members to its roster.

The two new members are Marlene Stewart Streit, 81, from Canada, and Judy Bell, 79, from the United States of America. Both women have accepted invitations from the historic St Andrews club to become honorary members.

New members Streit and Bell are both prolific golfers in their own right, with strong reputations throughout their golfing careers. Marlene Stewart Streit is the only player in history to win the Canadian, Australian, British and U.S. women’s amateurs, while Judy Bell is best known for being the first female president of the United States Golf Association. Both women have already been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, highlighting their prestigious achievements.

This comes after a rather recent decision to allow women to become members at all. Female players were only allowed to become members following a vote in 2014 - almost three centuries after the club was first founded. During the vote, more than three quarters of the club’s 2,400 members turned out to vote on whether or not women should be allowed to join, with 85% voting in favour of the move.

Since the decision to admit female members, seven women have been invited to join the club. These are: Louise Suggs, Lally Segard, Renee Powell, Dame Laura Davies, Annika Sorenstam, Belle Robertson and Princess Anne.

Regarded by many as the home of golf, with legend saying that the game has been played on the site since as early as the 12th century, St Andrews is one of the most famous courses and clubs in the world. Before the vote to accept women, the club had been criticised for its anti-female policies, with club officials often refusing to see the ban on women as an issue.

Peter Dawson, from St Andrews course, was quoted as saying that the ban was ‘hardly life threatening’. The lack of female members prompted notable figures including Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, former culture secretary Maria Miller and former sports minister Hugh Robertson to turn down invitations to the Open in protest.