R&A Announce First Ever Female Captain

Claire Dowling is the first women to become R&A club captain — (Image credit: The R&A)

Claire Dowling will make history later this year having been announced as the first ever female captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

Dowling was nominated by the Past Captains of the Club and will serve as captain for the 2026/27 season - starting with the traditional driving-in ceremony on the first tee of the Old Course on 25 September.

Dowling is currently sitting on the Membership Committee at the R&A, having previously been on the Rules Committee and General Committee.

She has been a referee at The Open Championship seven times and is an honorary life member of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union.

Now residing in Devon, Dowling is a member at East Devon and plays off a 7.6 handicap.

Clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews

As a distinguished amateur player, Dowling played four times for the Great Britain and Ireland team in the Curtis Cup.

She was actually part of the first GB&I victory on American soil in 1986 - a 13-5 win at Prairie Dunes - and also Curtis Cup captain at Ganton in 2000.

Dowling played for Ireland in the Home Internationals and in six European Team Championships.

Among her list of successes, Dowling won five Irish Championships, the first in 1983, the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1986 and the Spanish Amateur Championship in 1987.

And now after spending much of her life in golf, she will make history as the first female captain of the R&A.

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.