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Muirfield, close to Edinburgh, has retained a male-only
membership policy since it was founded in 1744 and a vote to
admit women members fell short of the required two-thirds
majority on Thursday.
"The damage to golf's image is more important than us losing an
Open course. We have such a strong ladies tour. We have the
Olympics coming up, which is all about including everyone,"
McIlroy, 27, told British media.
"The girls are going to get so much exposure from being in the
Olympics with the men. It's 2016. Time moves on... Everyone
should have the opportunity to join a club if they want to.
"Especially when we are trying to break out of this stuffy old
image, this is not what we need... In this day and age it is a
little disappointing to see. I think the R&A made the right
decision," said the Northern Irish golfer.
Four-times major champion McIlroy was two strokes behind U.S.
Masters winner Danny Willett, who finished with 65, after the
first round of the Irish Open on Thursday.
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by
Amlan Chakraborty)
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