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.
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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.
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