Portmarnock Golf Club has elected the first women members in the club’s 128-year history.

There were 40 candidates for election - 30 men and 10 women.

In the end nine women were elected as full voting members this week along with 19 men.

With former internationals Mary McKenna, Ita Butler and Claire Hourihane elected as Honorary Life Members last year, the nine new additions bring to 37 the number of female members in all categories, including students, girls and overseas.Portmarnock voted last year to change its constitution and allow women to join.

Announcing the result of the vote last year, the club said in a statement: “A vote by the Members of Portmarnock Golf Club, that Rule 3 be amended through the removal of the words 'who shall be Gentlemen’ has been passed. The result is 83.4% in favour and 16.6% against.

“As a consequence of this decision, the Rules and Bye-Laws of the Club will now become gender-neutral, which marks a positive development in the Club’s long and distinguished history.”

As it now has women members, the club is eligible to host R&A events.

Officials from the R&A visited the club twice this year and it’s understood it is in preliminary talks about potentially staging the AIG Women’s Open.

There has been much speculation that the club could one day host The Open Championship, however, the R&A’s Chief Executive Martin Slumbers appeared lukewarm about that possibility when asked by the Irish Independent at this year’s Open at St Andrews.

“We are always looking at the pool of courses that we use," Mr Slumbers said. "I am happy with the courses we've got at the moment. 

“We will certainly be looking to bring more of our amateur events into the island (of Ireland).

“Portrush gave us a great platform, and we had the Amateur Portmarnock (in 2019), which was fantastic, and we will keep building up all the time.

"The R&A looked closely at the Portmarnock links in the build-up to the Amateur Championship three years ago, but the difficulty of access remains a sticking point when it comes to The Open.

"We looked very closely when we staged the Amateur and it was a terrific golf course and it was a terrific staging with great support.

“But it's a pity it's on an island."It's quite difficult infrastructure-wise. It's a great golf course and we would love to go there more often. But are we considering it for The Open? No, not at this time."