Golf

Padraig Harrington agrees with Open ban on Muirfield course

Padraig Harrington plays out of a bunker to the 14th green during day one of the Irish Open at the K Club in county Kildare on Thursday<br />Picture by PA&nbsp;
Padraig Harrington plays out of a bunker to the 14th green during day one of the Irish Open at the K Club in county Kildare on Thursday
Picture by PA 
Padraig Harrington plays out of a bunker to the 14th green during day one of the Irish Open at the K Club in county Kildare on Thursday
Picture by PA 

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON agrees with the R&A announcement that they are taking Muirfield off the rota for staging the Open Championship because of the ban on women members at the club.

Muirfield hosted the Major many times in the past but, unless things change at the Scottish club, the tournament will not go there in future. The statement issued by R&A chief executive Mark Slumbers read: “We have consistently said that it is a matter for the honourable company to conduct a review of its membership policy and that we would await their decision.

"The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and, going forward, we will not stage the Championship at a venue that does not admit women as members. Given the schedule for staging the Open, it would be some years before Muirfield would have been considered to host the Championship again. If the policy at the club should change, we would reconsider Muirfield as a venue for the Open in the future.”

Muirfield hosted the Open on 16 occasions between 1892 and 2013, including in 1948, when Fred Daly became the only Irishman to win the title: “I suppose it was coming,” said Harrington after posting a three-over-pat 75 in the Irish Open at the K Club on Thursday.

“We love playing the golf course [Muirfield], it's a great golf course, but there is more to modern golf than just the golf course. We see that here in Ireland. We've seen the R&A take women members and we've seen Augusta take in women members.

"Gone are the days when you can discriminate in a club where other people want to play. At the end of the day, the R&A have a bigger responsibility, not just to the game of golf, but to society. They have done the right thing.”

Regarding his opening round of 76, he reflected on his triple-bogey at 11 and double-bogey at 15 and reckoned that had he turned those into bogeys, he would have had a very respectable round, as he got the worst of the morning weather when heavy rain left the course sodden.