Muirfield History With Women Not Exactly What You Think

Plenty are under the impression that women’s golf at Muirfield, home of this week’s AIG Women’s Open, did not begin until 2017, the year when the club agreed to take female members. The truth, though, is a tad different.

The first of two Curtis Cups was played over the links of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in the summer of 1952, and the second in 1984.

With regard to the ’52 version, the fact that one of the worst shanks in Christendom was struck by a woman on the Sunday of that week could well explain why the men felt it safer to keep to themselves for so long. The woman in question was an American by the name of Grace DeMoss, and the scene of her crime was the 15th hole.

Though the members had made the women welcome for this famous amateur fixture, some of the conditions laid down for the occasion were every bit as archaic as you might have expected in those days. For example, the visitors were told that they could use the clubhouse facilities ahead of the match but not thereafter. Again, they were advised th...