The Ladies Professional Golf Association is facing growing pressure to revise its transgender policy as a former men’s collegiate golfer moves closer to becoming the first transgender player to qualify for the most prestigious tour in women’s golf.
Hailey Davidson, a 31-year-old who played NCAA men’s Division II and III golf, opened the second stage of qualifying Tuesday with a 78 at the LPGA Q-School at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida. Davidson’s round of 78 resulted in a tie for 171st in the 194-player field.
Players who finish in the top 35 this week will automatically receive a card for the 2025 Epson Tour, the LPGA’s official qualifying tour, and advance to the final LPGA qualifying round in December, according to Golf Week.
Tracking Davidson’s progress are hundreds of female athletes who have urged the tour to repeal its policy allowing male-to-female transgender golfers as long as they have undergone sex-change surgery and lowered their testosterone to LPGA-approved levels.
“LPGA policy does not explicitly state eligibility based on sex,” said the Independent Women’s Forum letter to the LPGA signed by more than 275 professional female golfers, whose names were not released. “It is essential for the integrity and fairness of women’s golf to have a clear and consistent participation policy in place based on a player’s immutable sex.”
The LPGA, which removed its “female at birth” requirement in response to a lawsuit in 2010, said it is reviewing its gender policy and plans to announce any updates ahead of the 2025 season.
DOCUMENT: Letter to LGPA commissioner on transgender golfers
“It really is remarkable how little the LADIES Professional Golf Association cares about ladies,” former University of Kentucky All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, host of OutKick’s “Gaines on Girls,” wrote Tuesday on X.
Davidson, who came within one spot of qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open in June, cleared the first round of Q-School in August by tying for 42nd place. The top 95 players advanced to the second round.
Davidson, a Scottish-born player who now lives in Florida, won three times on the NXXT Golf mini-tour until the organization changed its rules in March to allow only biological females.
Some transgender athletes have sought to fly under the radar by refusing to comment on their gender identity. Not Davidson, who has taken on the naysayers with Instagram posts like “Hate won’t win” and “don’t let the outside hate define who you are!”
After making it through the pre-qualifying round in August, Davidson took a swipe at the critics, saying there is “this massive lie out there that I am outdriving everyone.”
“Clearly conservative media needs to give these amazing female athletes WAY more credit rather than belittle them and their capabilities all in an attempt to attack transgender athletes,” said Davidson in the Aug. 26 post.
Just shows how invalidated women are in so many walks of life. Unbelievable https://t.co/Av8ZreRWTZ
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 21, 2024
Those disagreeing include Lauren Miller, who was paired with Davidson at the NXXT Women’s Championship in January, which Davidson won after defeating Miller in a playoff.
Miller, a former Division I women’s golfer at Mississippi State, said Davidson consistently drove about 10-20 yards farther than she did during the tournament, but on the playoff hole, Davidson outdrove her by 40-50 yards.
“Hailey beat me on that hole, so Hailey won the tournament,” Miller told the Independent Women’s Forum. “He even admitted that he ’swung out of his shoes.’ My boyfriend was caddying for me, and we both just looked at each other like, ’did you see that?’”
In Davidson’s corner is Athlete Ally, an LGBTQ group that advocates for athletes playing based on gender identity. The organization’s sponsors include Nike, Adidas and Gatorade.
“Athlete Ally Ambassador Hailey Davidson has followed all guidelines from the LPGA, yet is facing horrific abuse simply for being her authentic self,” Athlete Ally said in a 2022 post on Facebook. “Making sports inclusive for all is NOT a threat to women’s sports. Perpetuating harassment and abuse is.”
Davidson isn’t the first transgender golfer to seek an LPGA tour card. That distinction belongs to Bobbi Lancaster, who competed at Q-School in 2014 at the age of 63, but fell short.
The 73-year-old physician now says that transgender players who have undergone male puberty have an unfair advantage.
“I don’t think it’s fair to have transgender women like me competing against cisgender women in women’s sports,” Lancaster told Golf Week in a Feb. 2 article. “Period, end of story.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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