Susan Reed, former editor of Golf For Women magazine, jokes, “In golf, it’s 1956.”Birkdale has been admitting women members since 1890, earlier than its brethren clubs by, oh, more than a century and a quarter. Every British Open golf course has its own atmosphere, made up of equal parts antiquated custom, salt-heavy air and local varieties of ankle-clutching grasses, the quaintly named harebell and petalwort that colour the gray dunes. In the case of Royal Birkdale, you find this peculiarly odd element in the club’s aura and history: skirts. Tears will bedew, if wigs do not bestrew the green.”But at Birkdale, free-swinging women were accepted from the first. It was a small, socially secluded place with nothing to do but bathe and play golf, ladies accompanying their fathers and brothers on leisurely strolls across the links.

Source: thestar July 19, 2017 23:15 UTC