Rory McIlroy calls out Muirfield for ‘obscene’ membership policy barring women

Rory McIlroy is no fan of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers who, after 273 years and two votes, finally decided on Tuesday to dip their toes into the 21st century and admit women members into the still old-boys club at Muirfield.

McIlroy took heat for jumping headlong into politics when he played golf with renowned misogynist Donald Trump. That did not deter him from letting the sexist throwbacks at Muirfield have it for their extremely late and tepid acceptance of women into the clubhouse so they could reclaim their spot in the British Open rotation.

On Tuesday, the Honourables overturned, by 80 percent to 20 percent, the vote taken 10 months ago to continue allowing only males to become members. McIlroy offered his take from the podium at Bay Hill in advance of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I was outspoken about this before whenever the vote went the first time around,” he said. “I mean, in this day and age, where you’ve got women that are like the leaders of certain industries and women that are heads of state and not to be able to join a golf course? I mean, it’s obscene. Like it’s ridiculous ... that it got to this state is horrendous.”

And don’t expect the four-time major champion with one British Open title to break bread any time soon with those who still won’t let a woman join for at least two years (you know, the red tape involved with applying and all).

“Yeah, I mean, we’ll go back and we’ll play The Open Championship, because they will let women members in, but every time I go to Muirfield now I won’t have a great taste in my mouth,” said McIlroy, who deemed “horrendous” the 20 percent of holdouts. “We’ll go back there for The Open Championship at some point and I won’t be having many cups of tea with the members afterwards.”

Some lauded McIlroy for his unfiltered opinion.

Others, though, got on him for what they perceived as hypocrisy after he teed it up with the Chauvinist-in-Chief.

There’s also more to Rory’s dislike of Muirfield than its antediluvian membership. After shooting 79-75 and missing the cut in the 2013 British Open, small wonder it’s not among his top-10 tracks.

“Muirfield wouldn’t be one of my favorite Open rota courses,” he said. “So no matter the decision yesterday, if it had been kept off The Open Championship rota, I wouldn’t have been that unhappy.”