This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This paragraph caught my attention in the most recent edition of GolfWeek’s on-line publications:

“AIG Women’s British Open (LPGA).  Three years ago, Muirfield, host of 16 men’s British Opens, invited its first female members in the club’s 275-year history.  Needless to say, the final major of 2022 carries great significance.”

Why did this catch my attention?

Well, in 2005, my wife, Nancy, and I traveled to Scotland to watch our son, Eric, play in the British Mid-Am, for which he qualified by playing well in the U.S. Mid-Amateur.  In Scotland, the Mid-Am was hosted by Muirfield Golf Club in Guillane, Scotland.  Our son’s wife, Holly, was there, too.

And, that is what’s critical.

Two women were there and, among others, were “allowed” on the grounds of the historic and traditional layout of golf in Scotland, one of the country’s best, though with a clear history of discrimination toward women.

It had a long history of not allowing women on the property – either to play golf or to watch golf.

In 2019, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers invited its first female members in the club’s 275-year history.  That only came after the R&A took the iconic course off the men’s British Open rota after a 2016 membership vote to bring women in failed to reach the two-thirds required.  A re-vote in 2017 pushed it through, which changed a clause that had been in effect since 1744.

Further, the first Women’s British Open ever held at iconic Muirfield occurred last weekend.  There have been 16 men’s British Opens staged at Muirfield, dating back to 1892.

Ashleigh Buhai became the first woman to win a major at Muirfield, claiming the AIG Women’s British Open after four playoff holes.

And a female member of the club, Lindsey Garden, made history on Saturday when she became the first female member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers to tee it up in a tournament.  With an uneven field, she played as a “marker.”

According to today’s ethics, the title “honorable” might not have been appropriately to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh golfers because they discriminated against women.  [And, note, word “honourable” in the official title was spelled with the “u” in the U.K., not as we would spell the word in the U.S.]

In the past, the old men in and around Muirfield would head to the course early in the morning and go directly to the locker-room where they would change into golf clothes and then go out to course to play.  This would occur typically in “foursomes,” another word for alternate shot, a game most of us don’t play much in the U.S.

After the morning round, the male golfers would head again to the locker-room, change into their best duds, then go into the clubhouse restaurant – again, only men, no women.

After lunch, the same again – change, go play golf, then change and go home.

That’s the way it was for years.

So it was that my wife and daughter-in-law got long stares from some of the Muirfield members when they were “inside the clubhouse and on the course,” back in 2005, about 15 years before the “men-only” clause went away.

Clearly, the club had decided to host the Mid-Am and, with that decision, admitting women on in the clubhouse and on the course was part of the deal, though it didn’t go down easily with some of the old men.

My wife, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland when they were children, tells this story better than I can. 

She remembers how she enjoyed sitting in the restaurant of the clubhouse across from an older gentleman who couldn’t believe her parents came from such a very poor area of Scotland – near Glasgow — and now, her child, our son, was playing on the Muirfield track and, she, my wife and daughter were there to watch.

In truth, he didn’t grill my wife or treat her with disdain; he was just incredulous.

All in all, it was a great experience for us.

So, with the incentive to be able to host “The Open,” Muirfield has entered the 21^st century.  It is all for the good because Muirfield will now be able to showcase itself without the sexism taint.