STROKE OF GENIUS

St. Andrews Votes to Let Women Golf

After 260-year ban.

While the rest of Scotland votes on independence, 2,400 members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews made history on their own. Eighty-five percent of the club's members, all of whom are men, voted to admit women Thursday after 260 years of exclusion. (The Old Course at St. Andrews is known as the "home of golf.") The club's chief executive said lifting the ban on women was "hardly life-threatening." It's still a big change though: The men-only rule was so strict that even Queen Elizabeth, the club's patron, was once denied entry via the main door. Two years ago, the Augusta National golf club in Georgia let women join.