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First Minister for Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has called on Royal Troon Golf Club to admit women members before it stages the Open Championship in July.

“There should be nowhere in Scotland off limits to women and I hope Royal Troon reflects that”. The Royal and Ancient admitted its first women members in 2014, and Royal Troon is still consulting on the issue, but it looks unlikely that a decision will be taken before the end of the year. If that is the case Mrs Sturgeon may choose to follow the lead of her predecessor Alex Salmond who refused to attend the Open at Muirfield in 2013 because of its single sex policy.

A spokesman for Royal Troon Golf Club explained that the Troon Ladies Golf Club also play on the links and there is a joint Championship Committee looking after the arrangements for this year’s Open, one venue with shared facilities.

Nice try, but it is the club itself who are hosting the Championship. Their consultation process has been dragging on for far too long. A decision should be made now.

Top hair. Inspirational.

It is hard to believe that it is five years ago today that the word lost the genius who was Seve Ballesteros. Continued condolences to his family Carmen, Miguel and Javier. Good to know that the regional airport in Cantabria has now been renamed Seve Ballesteros-Santander in his honour.

This month golf raised its profile considerably by a number of initiatives in Parliament.

Firstly Danny Willett was congratulated in a motion tabled by MP for Sheffield Helley Louise Haigh who said it was a golden age for Sheffield sportsmen and women and Danny’s success will encourage people across the Uk to take up the great game of golf.

On 13 April the Economic Value of Golf was debated and Sports Minister Rt Hon David Evennett responded to the points raised. You can read the Hansard extract at http://goo.gl/PQmHVS

Dame Laura Davies became the first Honorary President of the new Parliamentary Golf Group. She said “this group’s deliberately broad aims and independent role in the sport mean they can tackle issues others cannot”.

European Tour officials visited parliament to present to MPs how to maximise participation in the game.They presented that golf is a game for everyone and they were helping to reach a wider audience and increase participation.

Ping have joined Sky Sports and the Royal and Ancient as partners of the Parliamentary Golf Group.

The picture above shows Labour Party leader Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP joining in the chipping and putting competition which took place this on St Stephen’s Green outside the Palace of Westminster to launch National Golf Month. This also gave MPs an opportunity to learn more about golf in their constituencies.

Karl McCartney MP, Member for Lincoln who is Chairman of the Parliamentary Golf Group said he was “delighted that they can support National Golf Month in May”.

More information is at nationalgolfmonth.com.

European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley has set out plans for a 6.6 million euro purse tournament to be played at Valderrama in the Autumn.

He said “I believe there is a significant growth opportunity for our tour. I will be disappointed if we only have three or four new big tournaments in thr next year. I hope there will be more. The challenge we face is to encourage our players not to play so much on the US Tour by peoviding world class tournaments regularly in 2017”.

Pelley is hoping that staging the new event in Spain the week after the British Masters at The Grove there eill be a fortnight after the Ryder Cup when European stars will play at home.

The Valderrama Committee faced a lot of criticism after this month’s Spanish Open when the greens were rough and unpredictable due to the coarse poa anna grass. They have decided to dig up and returf 9 greens this summer and re seed with bent grass which is more natural in Southern Spain.

Organisers of the London Design Festival have scrapped plans for a designer crazy golf course in Trafalgar Square following the failure of its crowdfunding campaign.

Billed to include contributions from Zaha Hadid, Paul Smith and Tom Dixon, the project had only raised £23,083 of its £120,000 target when the Kickstarter campaign ended at midnight last night.

London Design Festival organisers today issued a statement confirming that the “highly ambitious” Visionary Crazy Golf project would not go ahead due to lack of funding.

“We are obviously disappointed that we won’t be able to achieve it through Kickstarter, which was a new funding model for us,” said London Design Festival director Ben Evans.

“Installations in Trafalgar Square are complicated and expensive to realise, but we hope that we might find another way to have Visionary Crazy Golf financed, and may well revisit the idea in the future.”

President Barrack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron played a few holes at The Grove during the President’s state visit. Mr Cameron is also a fully paid up member of Ellensborough Golf Club in Buckinghamshire. The occupier of Chequers has been entitled to honorary membership of the club since the time of Lloyd George and his recently published tax return shows that Mr Cameron paid his £1,165 2015/16 fees.

Last year more than 60 golf clubs in China were shut down by the Communist Party and in October the sport was officially banned.Members were stopped from joining or entering private clubs because the party saw them as connected with bribery and corruption.

In a surprising U turn the ban was lifted just before the Sczezen Open and the only restriction on party members is now from accepting free memberships or gifts of golf equipment.

The way is now clear for golf to flourish amongst the huge Chinese population.

Adam Scott drew controversy last week when he announced that he was skipping the Rio Olympics.

“My decision has been take. as a result of an extremely busy playing schedule and other commitments, both personal and professional”.

This brought a scathing response from Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser, winner of four gold medals.

“Very sorry to hear thst Adam Scott cannot fit it into his schedule to play for Australia in the Olympics. Well done Adam, great to put your own country on hold so that you can fulfil your own schedule how much money do you want in life not showing much for your country. I guess working three jobs a wedk to secure my place as an Olympic swimmer gave me perspective”.

Follwing on, furthet major champions withdrew. First Vijay Singh from Fiji, then South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel pulled out of the competition.

Gary Player professed himself “sad and disappointed by this”. He said that when he was younger he would have given anything to play in the Olympics and players withdrawing would hurt the game of golf.

“The Olympics will undoubtedly grow the game worldwide no matter who plays and who doesn’t. All the top players should think carefully about this. It is a spectacular celebration of sport and very exciting that golf is back again. It will be a time that no living golfer has ever experienced and I will be walking with the South African team at the Opening Ceremony I cannot wait to represent my country with pride”.

On the women’s side many players are concerned about the threat of the zika virus, and there remains the possibility of further withdrawals.

Danny Willett’s wonderful victory in the US Masters has given European golf a huge boost, especially as seven European players finished in the top 10. One of our finest hours!