History will be made next week when professional female golfers are allowed into the clubhouse of the Home of Golf, St Andrews, for the first time as competitors.
It has been a long time in coming, but as golf gradually sheds its image as a stuffy pastime for elite gentlemen, yet another male bastion is being dismantled.
Some of the best female players in the planet from the LPGA will travel to Scotland for the 2007 Women’s British Open, and the New York Times highlights the story of a special woman who will be joining the hordes.
Not to compete, but to witness the fulfillment of a dream that started when she won the Ladies’ Amateur British Open Championship in 1948 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.
Louise Suggs, 83, a founding member of the LPGA, was wondering when more doors would open for female golfers, not only in Britain but elsewhere in the golfing world, and particularly when it came to the Royal & Ancient, the sport’s governing body outside United States.
She was quoted in the NYT article as saying:
“I think this is the beginning of a revival, sort of, for women’s golf. I hope so, anyway. In the back of my mind, I always thought if the ladies were ever allowed to play the Old Course in a tournament, we’d have it made.â€
Unfortunately, 59 years is too long for any decent golfer to wait. Still, better late than never and the fans in Scotland can now look forward to some of the best players of the current generation gracing the famous Old Course.
