Wednesday 6 July 2016 18:10, UK
The 2014 champion Rory McIlroy says it is right that Muirfield should be dropped from the Open Championship rota until the club reconsiders its membership policy.
The R&A announced on Thursday that the Scottish course would no longer be in the running to host the sport's oldest major championship, after a motion on accepting women members fell just short of the two-thirds majority required to be passed.
And world No 3 McIlroy says there is no doubt that the R&A have made the correct decision.
"They (Muirfield) can do what they want but, in this day and age, it's not right to host the world's biggest tournament at a place that does not allow women to become members," said the four-time major champion.
"Hopefully they can see some sense and we can get it back there one day.
"The R&A did the right thing. It's 2016 and we have to move with the times. It's taken long enough.
"Bigger picture, it's a great golf course, but there's so many other great golf courses that we play on the Open rota that we're not going to miss one. I think it's more their loss than it is the R&A's or our loss.
"If that's what they want to do, obviously it's a free world and they can do that, but they must have known that it was going to cause this sort of controversy."
Muirfield has hosted 16 Opens and some of the greats of the game have won the tournament at the course.
Gary Player of South Africa is among that number but he wrote on Twitter: "As much as I love and respect Muirfield as a club where I won the Open, I totally agree with the R&A that staging the championship at any venue that does not admit women is simply unacceptable.
"I hope Muirfield will reconsider their position soon and continue hosting one of the world's greatest golf events."
And Catriona Matthew, who won the Women's British Open in 2009 at Royal Lytham and lives only a few miles from Muirfield, tweeted: "Embarrassed to be a Scottish women golfer from East Lothian after that decision."
Of the 648 Muirfield members who were eligible to vote, 616 took part and 397 voted in favour of accepting women members, with 219 against, but 411 yes votes were needed for women members to be accepted.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote on Twitter: "Scotland has women leaders in every walk of life. It is 2016. This is simply indefensible."
