One of the most pleasing decisions this year was that of the International Olympic Committee who told the committee of Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo that they would withdraw the club’s right to host the Olympic golf event at the 2020 Games if they did not admit women as full members. At the time women had restrictive playing rights not being allowed to play on Sunday.

The club gave their agreement swiftly and Tokyo 2020 Chief Yoshiro Mori thanked them for their understanding and cooperation after a public outcry. Kuriko Koike Tokyo’s first female Governor said that she had been “very uncomfortable that women could not be full members in this day and age. The venue should be open to everyone to play”.

Lydia Ko, now world number 9, said she hoped that golf as a man’s game would be left behind in past generations particularly with golf being such a popular sport in Japan.

With the members of Muirfield, Augusta National and the Royal and Ancient all backing down over women members, it is time that smaller clubs who still have restrictive discriminatory rules not allowing women to play on Saturday or Sunday mornings should be examining their consciences and not hiding behind the private club status. It’s now become a moral issue and should I believe become a legal one.

The days of the dinosaurs as shown in Channel 4’s The Club earlier in this blog, should finally become extinct.