Men-only courses ‘a societal thing’, says Harrington

The controversy over playing The Open at courses such as men-only Muirfield is not an indication of golf’s need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century but a problem with society in general.

At last, that’s the view of two-time Open champion Pádraig Harrington, who sat nicely on the fence when asked about the R&A’s perceived discrimination of women and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond’s decision to boycott the hosting of golf’s oldest Major by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, aka Muirfield.

“All I can say is that I grew up at a golf course where I was not allowed to be a full member,” Harrington said of his boyhood days at the Garda-founded Stackstown Golf Club in the foothills of the Dublin mountains.