Claire Dowling drives in as the R&A club's first woman captain

Claire Dowling drove in at 8am on Friday as a cannon fired beside the first tee of the Old Course, and became captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. She is the first woman to hold the role and the club’s 271st captain, according to Golf Digest.

At the “driving-in”, the incoming captain hits a single tee shot from the first on the Old Course, watched by members, former captains and family, while local caddies line the fairway hoping to retrieve the ball. Whoever gets it hands it back and is rewarded with a gold sovereign.

This year that was Dillon McCarron, a 30-year-old caddie from Nova Scotia in his second season at St Andrews, the Irish Golf Desk reports.

Dowling told reporters she had been very nervous in the trophy room before walking out. In the club’s announcement she said she was “honoured to be the first woman to take on the role”.

Born and raised in Dublin, Dowling:

• won five Irish women’s championships, the first in 1983
• won the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1986 and the Spanish Amateur in 1987
• played four times for Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup, including the 1986 side that beat the United States 13-5 at Prairie Dunes
• captained GB&I in the 2000 Curtis Cup at Ganton, a narrow 10-8 defeat

She has also been a referee at The Open seven times and is an honorary life member of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union. She was among the first women admitted to membership of the club in 2015 and has served on several of its committees since.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is a private members’ club and is separate from The R&A, the body that runs The Open and, with the USGA, writes the Rules of Golf. The two share a history and a clubhouse. The club did not admit women until its members voted to change that in 2014.

Dowling says she has received a large number of messages from women describing her appointment as inspiring.

Her year in office will involve representing the club around the world, and it means she will be captain when The Open returns to St Andrews for the 155th Championship next July.

Sources

• Golf Digest: History in St Andrews as the R&A’s first female captain officially drives in
• Irish Golf Desk: Claire Dowling drives in as first woman to captain The Royal and Ancient
• Golf Monthly: History made at St Andrews as Royal and Ancient Golf Club gets first ever female captain
• Irish Times: Ireland’s Claire Dowling drives in as first woman captain of R&A at St Andrews