Surrey golf club welcomes Muslim women as taster tour begins

‘Most Muslim women have never had the opportunity to play golf,’ said the founder of the Muslim Golf Association. Photograph: Muslim Golf Association

Last weekend, something unusual happened at Walton Heath golf club, one of the world’s top courses whose first captain was King Edward VIII and which has counted four prime ministers, including Winston Churchill, among its members.

The prestigious club, set amid Surrey heathland, first hosted the English Ladies’ Championship in 1914. A century later, it launched a ladies’ academy to encourage more women to take up the sport.