McIlroy, golf aces slam Muirfield's ' outdated' men-only policy ahead of Open Championship

Former golf World No.1 Rory McIlroy has slammed Muirfield for banning women members from playing, saying that the stance of the club is outdated and should be consigned to history.

Ahead of the Open Championship on Thursday, a fierce debate is going on about the men-only membership policy of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, whose club will host the championship over the next four days, with it being one of the three courses on the Open rota not to allow women members, the Daily Express reports.

According to the Northern Irish golfer, the club's stance is ridiculous given that men and women are treated equally for the most part nowadays, adding that such things should not be even talked about.

Agreeing with McIlroy, defending champion Ernie Els called Muirfield's exclusion of women as 'weird', while world No 9 Luke Donald also hit out at the club's policy, saying that such policies need to be more inclusive as the world goes forward.

However, Donald also said that the RandA are trending in the right direction, a good example of which is the women's Open being at St Andrews in a couple of weeks and hoped for the trend to continue.

But golf's governing body has rejected calls to exclude clubs with male-only membership from the Open rota, with chief executive Peter Dawson saying that although they are conscious on the disparity of view on the subject, they believe that membership policy is a matter for the clubs.