History Made at St Andrews: The R&A Golf Club's First Female Captain
Claire Dowling has become the first female captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, 272 years after the club was founded.
On Friday 25 September 2026, Claire Dowling drove in as the first female captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The club was founded in 1754 and only admitted its first women members in 2015. Here is what happened, who Dowling is, and why the moment matters beyond St Andrews.
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History made at St Andrews
Claire Dowling became the first female captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews on Friday 25 September 2026. At 8am a cannon fired on the first tee of the Old Course, Dowling hit her drive down the fairway, and 272 years of exclusively male captaincy ended in about a second and a half.
The club was founded in 1754. Its members only voted to admit women in 2014, with the first women joining the following year. Dowling was one of them.
What happened on the first tee
The driving-in ceremony has marked the start of every new captain's term since 1863, and it is a genuinely unnerving piece of theatre. The incoming captain is walked to the tee by the outgoing captain and the honorary professional. The ball is teed up for them. There is no practice swing, no second attempt, and a crowd watching from behind the ropes.
More than a thousand people turned out for this one, including members, former captains, Dowling's family and a large contingent of the public.
Dowling was disarmingly honest about the experience afterwards, calling it "the most terrifying experience I think I've ever had in my life". She also admitted she had barely registered the strike itself, telling Golf Digest that all she knew was that she'd hit it.
Then the older tradition kicked in. St Andrews Links caddies race to collect the captain's ball, and the one who retrieves it returns it in exchange for a gold sovereign. Dillon McCarron got there first, and left with a coin bearing the head of King Charles III.
Dowling had a 10am tee time in a club competition straight afterwards. Which is a very good indication of how she intends to approach the year.
Who is Claire Dowling?
She is not a ceremonial appointment. Dowling is a serious player with a long administrative record, nominated for the captaincy by the club's past captains in May 2026.
As a player. A five-time Irish Amateur Champion, she plays off a handicap index of 7.6 at the age of 68. She is an honorary life member of Golf Ireland and of several clubs including Woodbrook, Cork, Portmarnock, Copt Heath and her home club, East Devon, where she lives in Devon with her husband Peter.
Inside the club. Dowling joined in 2015 among the first intake of women members. She sat on the Rules Committee from 2015 to 2019 and became its Deputy Chair in 2017, was elected to the General Committee in 2019 and became Deputy Chair there in 2022, and most recently served on the Membership Committee.
That is a decade of committee work, which is worth saying plainly. She arrived at this through the same route her predecessors did.
The bit everyone gets wrong
Worth clearing up, because the coverage muddles it constantly.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is a private members' club, founded 1754, around 2,400 members worldwide, invitation only. It does not own the Old Course or any of the St Andrews links.
The R&A is the governing body, split off from the club in 2004. It writes the rules of golf with the USGA and runs The Open.
Dowling is captain of the club. As captain she becomes an ambassador for both, representing the club at R&A championships and international matches through her year in office.
Why it registers beyond St Andrews
Golf has spent a long time being quietly bad at making people feel welcome, and St Andrews carried more of that symbolism than anywhere else. A club that took until 2014 to vote on admitting women is now, eleven years later, captained by one of the women it admitted.
Dowling has said the reaction that struck her most came from women writing to say the appointment gave them something to aim for. That is the practical value of a moment like this. Representation at the top of an institution changes what people below it think is available to them.
It is not the finish line. Participation in golf among women in the UK still lags a long way behind men, and a captaincy does not fix that on its own. But the barrier this removes is a real one, and it removes it at the most symbolically loaded address in the sport.
Questions, answered
Who is the first female captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club?
Claire Dowling, who drove in on the first tee of the Old Course at St Andrews on 25 September 2026. She is the first woman to hold the role since the club was founded in 1754.
What is the driving-in ceremony at St Andrews?
It is the tradition that marks the start of a new captain's term at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. At 8am a cannon fires and the incoming captain hits a single tee shot down the first fairway of the Old Course, with no practice swing. It has happened since 1863.
Is The R&A the same as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club?
No, and this trips a lot of people up. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is a private members' club. The R&A is the separate governing body formed in 2004 to run the rules of golf and The Open. Dowling is captain of the club.
When did the Royal and Ancient Golf Club first admit women members?
In 2015, following a members' vote the previous year. Claire Dowling was among the first women admitted, which makes her captaincy roughly a decade after she joined.
Why does the caddie get a gold sovereign?
Tradition holds that caddies race to retrieve the captain's drive, and the one who returns the ball buys it back from them with a gold sovereign. Dillon McCarron collected Dowling's ball and the sovereign that came with it.