Ireland’s Claire Dowling will make history in September when she drives in as the first woman to captain The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in its 272-year history.
The five-time Irish Women’s Close champion and former Curtis Cup player will serve as Captain in 2026/27, having been nominated by the Past Captains of the Club.
She will begin her year in office after the traditional Driving-in ceremony on the first tee of the Old Course on Friday, 25 September 2026.
She represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup on four occasions, including the 1986 team, which secured the first GB&I victory over the USA on American soil with a 13-5 win at Prairie Dunes.
Born and educated in Dublin, she attended Dublin College of Catering and graduated from Trinity College in 1979 with a BSc (Mgt) in Hotel and Catering Management.
She represented Ireland in the Home Internationals from 1979 to 1992, playing in six European Team Championships during that time.
She also played for GB&I in the Espirito Santo Trophy on two occasions and in the Vagliano Trophy six times.
As Claire Hourihane, she won the first of her Irish Women’s Close titles in 1983 and went on to win the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1986 and the Spanish Amateur Championship in 1987.
She reached the semi-final of what is now the Women’s Amateur Championship in 1981 and 1988.
She went on to captain the GB&I Curtis Cup team in a narrow 10-8 defeat to the USA at Ganton in 2000 and also captained the Vagliano Trophy team and the Irish team.
Off the course, she has been heavily involved in golf administration, chairing England Golf’s Handicap and Course Rating Committee following the EGU/EWGA merger in 2012.
She sat on the CONGU board from 2012 – 2015 and was an advisory member of The R&A Amateur Status Committee from 1997-2001.
Claire was one of the first women to become a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 2015 and served on the Rules Committee from 2015 to 2019, becoming Deputy Chair in 2017.
She was elected to the General Committee in 2019 and became Deputy Chair in 2022. She is currently serving on the Membership Committee.
She has acted as a referee at The Open on seven occasions, including at Royal St George’s in 2021 when, with her husband Peter, a retired District Judge, they were the first married couple to referee at the same Championship.
She is an honorary life member of the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union and holds the same distinction at several golf clubs, including Portmarnock, Copt Heath, Woodbrook (which celebrates its centenary this year) and Cork.
She is also a member of East Devon, where she lives, and her current Handicap Index is 7.6.
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