Muirfield Golf Club, the site of 16 British Opens and the source of the written Rules of Golf, dating to 1744, has been stripped of the right to host the Open after voting against allowing female members.

Of the 648 eligible voters, 616 cast ballots, with 64 percent in favor of admitting women. The resolution fell short of the two-thirds majority required to pass.

Muirfield, which has been in Gullane, Scotland, about 20 miles northeast of Edinburgh, since 1891, is run by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. It is one of two clubs among the 10 in the British Open rotation to exclude women. Royal Troon, site of this year’s event, is the other.

The tournament was awarded to Royal Troon in 2012. At the time, it was one of a handful of all-male clubs to host men’s majors. Since then, the heat has been turned up on the issue of gender discrimination in membership policies. The male-only membership has increasingly become an anachronism undermining one of the main mandates of golf’s governing bodies, which is to grow the game.