University Of St. Andrews Principal On R&A: "Little did I know."

Karen Crouse profiles 55-year-old University of St. Andrews "principal" Louise Richardson, who is the first such leader of the university not to be asked to join the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Because she's a woman.

I know what you're thinking, they could have quietly done so and been done with the whole membership thing, but it'll be so much more fun to have a vote and possibly have the whole thing backfire!

Anyway, Richardson makes clear that this has become an issue, more than she initially thought, because of her inability to take blustery old rich types to lunch at he R&A to clinch the check-writing deal. Must so fun to be a college president these days.

Crouse writes:

“A supporter of the university got in touch and asked if he could possibly have lunch at the R&A today,” she said. “I had to arrange for somebody I know to take him to lunch at the R&A because, of course, I can’t. And I had to arrange for another member of the staff to take his wife to lunch some place in town because, of course, she can’t get into the R&A, either.”

At the time she took office in 2009, Richardson dismissed any discussion of club membership as a nettlesome distraction to more important issues.

“I, being kind of a professional and a pragmatist, said, ‘Oh, we can work something out; this is silly,’ ” she said. “But little did I know.”

Richardson also gets big points for this from the hickory golf crowd:

For the 55-year-old Richardson, golf has always been a bonding exercise. She took up the sport when she was young to spend time with her father.

The last time she played, she used hickory clubs, but it was not that long ago. In 2012, Richardson hit the first shot during a fund-raiser at Kingarrock, a golf course 10 miles from the St. Andrews Old Course and 100 years behind modern times. People who witnessed her solid shot expressed surprise at how she lifted the ball in the air. They had mistakenly interpreted her silence on the Royal and Ancient Club membership as a lack of interest in the game.