It's true. It really did exist, for decades. It wasn't an urban legend, as travellers to The Old Course at St. Andrews could attest. Photos popped up every now and then. But folks who never saw one of those photos, or didn't know anyone who visited St. Andrews, might have wondered whether it could actually be real.

But it was. Here is Annika Sorenstam, speaking several months ago about The Old Course hosting the Women's British Open for the first time:

A sign that said "No dogs or women allowed." A sign that stood beside the Old Course for decades, until being removed, according to The New York Times, only "recently."

Let's clear something up: That sign wasn't put up by anyone at The Old Course itself. It wasn't erected by the owners and operators of the Old Course, the St. Andrews Links Trust. And women were never banned from playing the Old Course.

No, that sign - "No dogs or women allowed" - was behind the 18th green of the Old Course at the entrance to the clubhouse of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

The R&A. Because the R&A - the governing body of golf for much of the world outside North America - has always banned women from its clubhouse.

This year, during the Women's British Open, the R&A clubhouse will open to women for the first time ever. But it will close to women again after the competition ends.

Laura Davies has said she'll be changing her shoes in the parking lot. Not sure if she was joking, but there's a precedent. Lee Trevino was so uncomfortable at Augusta - a club that, at that time, banned anyone of Trevino's ethnicity - that he changed his shoes in the parking lot. He even skipped The Masters a few times during his prime, until Jack Nicklaus talked him into returning.

Getting the R&A to open its clubhouse to women for the first time is an important step. This isn't a similar situation to Augusta National, where women are banned from membership (there are still a few clubs in the U.S. where women are literally banned from setting foot on the property - they couldn't even change their shoes in the parking lot). Augusta National is a private club.

The R&A's clubhouse is a private clubhouse, too. But unlike Augusta - which isn't the governing body of anything other than one golf tournament a year and its own membership policies - the R&A is the governing body of golf in most of the world.

Imagine if the USGA's headquarters in New Jersey included a "clubhouse" into which women were not permitted. And outside its front door there was a sign reading "No dogs or women allowed."

Perhaps the troglodytes who run the R&A will realize, after the best female golfers in the world depart their premises on Sunday, that women do not, in fact, have cooties.

The governing body of golf shouldn't close any part of itself off to any golfers.