WE do not believe that a monster swims in the murky depths of Loch Ness, but we can confirm that dinosaurs are at large in Scotland.

Muirfield Golf Club this week voted to admit female members for the first time in its 273-year history, paving the way for it to again host the British Open.

Welcome to the 21st Century guys. 

On the surface, this may look like a victory for equality and common sense but it is more a case of the club being pressured into doing the right thing. 

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which owns Muirfield and is the world’s oldest golf club, held a second postal ballot after members voted last May to retain the male-only policy. After May’s result, which caused consternation among many golf professionals and led Nicola Sturgeon to call the decision “simply indefensible”, the course was axed from the rota to host the British Open.

That was a blow to Muirfield’s public image and, crucially, had the potential to hit its bank balance. 

After the results of the second vote showed 80 per cent supported the motion to allow women to become members, the R&A, which organises the Open, promptly announced Muirfield was back in the frame to stage the world’s oldest major.

Professional golf, where women are still referred to as “ladies”, has been dreadfully slow to reflect the changes in society at large. St Andrews opened its membership to women in 2014 for the first time in 260 years, Royal St George’s and Royal Troon, ended their male-only policies last year and Augusta National, home of the Masters, decided in 2012 to invite women to join.

The main reason that Muirfield members had said they objected to females roaming their course was a worry they would "slow other golfers down".

The question facing its members after they reluctantly agreed to end almost three centuries of inequality is: "What took you so long?"