Organisers of the British Open golf championship have said it will not consider Muirfield in Scotland as a venue as long as its ban on women members remains.
The famous club, host of the Open 16 times, announced today it had voted to remain a men-only club.
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which owns Muirfield, voted to keep the status-quo at the course after failing to reach the two-thirds majority required to change the club's membership policy.
Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, which runs the Open, said: "The Open is one of the world’s great sporting events and going forward we will not stage the Championship at a venue that does not admit women as members.
"Given the schedule for staging The Open, it would be some years before Muirfield would have been considered to host the Championship again.
"If the policy at the club should change we would reconsider Muirfield as a venue for The Open in future."
Muirfield and Troon are the only remaining clubs on the ten-strong Open rota to have a male-only membership policy after Royal St George's voted last year to admit women members.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews also voted to end its 260-year-old male-only membership policy in September 2014.
Troon has always considered itself a special case in this respect as it shares facilities with the Ladies Golf Club, Troon.
Both clubs will shoulder the responsibility of hosting this year's Open via a joint Championship Committee.
A "comprehensive review" of membership policy was announced by Troon in January 2015, but the issue will not be resolved until the "back end" of 2016.
Muirfield has been reviewing its membership criteria for two years, the final stage of which was a postal ballot of the club's members.
When Muirfield last staged the Open in 2013, then R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said it would take a "hard push" for the organisation to change its policy on taking the world's oldest major championship to male-only clubs, despite "political posturing" and attacks by pressure groups.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond was among the political figures who did not attend the championship, describing the club's membership policy as "indefensible in the 21st century".
In April 2013, Mr Dawson had also said courses would not be bullied into changing their policies by the threat of losing the Open.
Speaking in February in response to the controversy surrounding Turnberry owner Donald Trump's views on Mexican immigrants, Mr Dawson's successor Martin Slumbers said: "The game is about people who enjoy playing the game and watching the best players perform on great courses.
"I don't think it's appropriate that we comment on political issues. I think we must stay focused on the golf.
"We as an organisation have said that we believe golf should be open to all, regardless of gender, race, nationality or religion and that's where we sit."
