The Loop

Royal Troon won’t yet be mixed-gender club before British Open

May 02, 2016

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The British Open will be played at Royal Troon for the ninth time this summer, yet it “will definitely not be a mixed gender club before hosting this year's Open Championship, although the club is on course to vote on the controversial issue by the end of the year,” Phil Casey of the Press Association writes.

“A ‘comprehensive review’ of membership policy was announced by Troon in January 2015 and the issue will not be resolved until the ‘back end’ of 2016. Troon captain Martin Cheyne told Press Association Sport: ‘What’s important is that we do this thoroughly and properly. We have 138 years of history across the two clubs and it’s important that we get this right.’”

Troon shares facilities with the Ladies Golf Club, Troon, and both clubs are involved in hosting the British Open.

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Last Olympic golf champion ‘shining guardian of Olympic spirit’

“A middle-aged insurance salesman with a scythe-wielder's swing that made Jim Furyk's look the model of orthodoxy; a fun-loving, Scotch-swigging sporting all-rounder of extraordinary gifts; and beyond all that, a shining guardian of the Olympic spirit. Everyone seemed to love George Seymour Lyon,” Ian Chadband at ESPN.com writes in this profile of the last Olympic gold medalist in golf, in 1904.

Zurich Classic ‘needs to change its luck’

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans again had inclement weather issues, but, as Jeff Duncan of the Times-Picayune argues in this story, it “doesn't need to change its date. It needs to change its luck.

“Even by traditional New Orleans spring standards, this weekend was extraordinarily wet and wild. This was Biblical rain, Noah's Ark stuff.”

Yet the pros outweigh the cons. “April is usually one of the most temperate months on the calendar,” he writes. “The schedule slot on the PGA Tour calendar is perfectly situated between The Masters and Players Championship, when golf interest is at an all-time high. And the simultaneous presence of Jazz Fest provides a major plus for sponsors and fans.”