The long-simmering debate over men-only golf clubs has heated up again, as Alex Salmond, Scotland’s top government official, told the operators of Muirfield that he wouldn’t attend the Open Championship because of their discriminatory membership policies.
Salmond, a serious golfer, also criticized the Royal & Ancient, one of golf’s governing bodies, for awarding the event to a club that prohibits entry to women. “I don’t think it helps the game to have the suggestion of a bias against women,” Salmond said in comments published by the Telegraph.
It’s hard to tell if Salmond is expressing genuine moral outrage or simply being politically expedient. But clearly, his protest would have more teeth if he hadn’t agreed to send a junior minister to the tournament in his place.