Senior British Government ministers lashed out yesterday at the 'politically incorrect' decision to hold the British Golf Open Championship at the historic but sexist Muirfield course according to Conrad Black's London broadsheet Sunday Telegraph. The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which owns the course does not accept women members or allow them into the clubhouse, a state of affairs that has angered both the Minister for Sports Richard Caborn and Trade & Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt who spoken out to condemn the Club's sexism.
Ministerial statements lambasting the venerable Edinburgh-based club, (and by default the similarly sexist Royal and Ancient golf club at St. Andrews which is the governing body for the sport outside USA), are bound to reopen the long running controversy on the sexist mores of British golf where many clubs remain resolutely testosterone bastions of all male privilege despite the fact that the game was given its social cachet by a woman. Mary Queen of Scots played a round or two at the Musselburgh course in 1537.
Prelimary rounds for the 'British Open'
1,800 amateur and professional golfers began their quest to qualify for the the British Open Golf Championship finals on Monday, July 8. After just one round of stroke play at 16 different regional courses around Britain, the leading players at each course will tee off over 36 holes in qualifying rounds at Scottish courses Gullane No 1, North Berwick, Dunbar and Luffness this coming Sunday and Monday, 14 and 15 July.
The four Scottish courses played in this qualifying round lie on the windy East Lothian headlands and are a perfect stop-off on the way to bunker death or glory at nearby Muirfield, with Luffness considered as one of the toughest courses in Scotland. The wind on this and the Dunbar course can play havoc with the best played shots, and weather forecasts do not offer hope of balmy days ahead. The historic Muirfield course to which the championship returns this year for the first time since 1992, is owned by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
The annual championship began in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club. A decade later the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews, the Musselburgh and the Muirfield course were brought into play after after the clubs contributed toward a silver claret jug trophy to replace the original silver-buckled Challenge Belt provided by the Prestwick Club. With the claret jug in 1876 came prize money of £6 to the winner. Last year winner David Duval took £600,000 home to the United States. This year he will be competing for £700,000 winner's purse out of a total of £3,609,000 in prize money.
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