One of the last bastions of male-only membership, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, is expected to announce later today that it will recommend women be finally allowed to join the club 260 years after it was founded.

The club, which is also serves as the governing body of golf, is set to confirm that it is recommending its 2,500 existing members vote to allow women to join.

A vote on the issue is due to be held in the autumn and follows intense pressure on the club from politicians.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson admitted in July last year that the issue of single-sex was "divisive".

He said then the club would look again at the issue, saying: “It’s a subject that we’re finding increasingly difficult, to be honest.”

The policy change is understood to follow a decision by R&A’s general committee and all members should receive a letter this week urging them to vote to allow in women members.

In Ireland, both Portmarnock and Royal Dublin golf clubs do not allow women members.

In 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that Portmarnock could continue to exclude women because it is exempted under equal status legislation.

The court, by a majority of three to two, upheld a decision by the High Court four years earlier and dismissed an appeal by the Equality Authority.

Royal County Down and Royal Portrush, the two most high-profile clubs in Northern Ireland, both admit lady members.