Result tomorrow on Muirfield's second vote on women

The result of a second ballot on admitting women members at Muirfield is to be announced tomorrow morning.

Muirfield's second ballot on admitting women members will be revealed at 11.30am on Tuesday morning. Picture: Jon Savage

Henry Fairweather, captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, will declare the keenly-anticipated outcome at 11.30am in front of the iconic clubhouse at the East Lothian venue.

Standing in the same spot last May, Fairweather revealed that an initial vote on admitting women members had failed to secure a two-thirds majorty required.

Falling short by just 14 votes, the ballot recorded a vote of 64 per cent in favour of the resolution and 36 per cent against.

The ‘no’ vote led the R&A to immediately announce that Muirfield, where the event has been staged 16 times, would not be considerded for the Open Championship until the position changed.

The club was also widely criticised, with Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Open champion, among those to hit out at Muirfield members.

“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 winner.

“Hopefully they can see some sense and we can get it back there one day.”

The move towards a second ballot started last June, with approval for that being granted overwhelmingly by show of hands at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the membership in September.

It was then announced last month that voting in a fresh ballot had begun in a process that was being “independently scrutinised”.

A statement on that revealed that members had been “recommended” unanimously by Fairweather, his successor and the club committee to vote in favour of the proposal.

Martin Slumbers, the R&A chief executive, said recently that Muirfield’s position on the Open rota would be re-considered immediately if the second ballot had a different result.