Queen Opens R&A Membership Betting As 3-1 Favorite

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I couldn't find it on their site but PaddyPower.com is offering 3-1 that Queen Elizabeth will be the first female member of the Royal And Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, tweets Martin Dempster of The Scotsman.

Last year Paddy Power had "given odds of 11/8 on the club not allowing their first female member until a point between 2016 and 2025. More worryingly the odds on the end of their ancient policy not coming until before the end of 2025 are at 4/6."

Well those numbers are obsolete now, and The Queen certainly fits the Royal and Ancient membership profile: really old, really rich, really British and really likes gin.

I still have my fingers crossed for Condoleeza Rice.

As for the all important UK reviews, Owen Gibson of The Guardian slaps the R&A around for not pushing host courses to take in female members before concluding:

If his members vote in favour of dropping the ban on female members on 18 September, with a two-thirds majority required, it will be interesting to see whether that changes.

Just as the emergence of a young Tiger Woods acted as a powerful symbol for the idea that you didn't have to be white and rich to play golf, so the painfully slow process of shedding its sexist image is another necessary step in maintaining tradition but positioning it for the future.

Derek Lawrenson couldn't help but be skeptical about the vote's timing on the same day as the Scottish independence vote.

'The reason for holding it that day is that it is enshrined in our constitution that the business meeting takes place the day before the last day of Autumn Medal week. So you see our dilemma,' said Peter Dawson, R&A chief executive.

A good day to bury bad news should the members, who are predominantly past retirement age, remain set in their ways? Dawson is confident that will not be the case and there will be the requisite two-thirds majority, thus ending 260 years of men-only rule.