Transgender issue resolved by LPGA Tour

By Neville Idour

The transgender issue is one of the biggest controversies the LPGA Tour has had to deal with in recent years because of the participation of Hailey Davidson in women’s events, including winning an event on a United States women’s development tour.

Until 2010 the LPGA Tour explicitly restricted membership to players who were “female at birth” However it removed that following a challenge in court by 57-year-old transgender golfer Lana Lawless who argued that the policy was discriminatory.

Amy Olson of the United States Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

However popular LPGA player Amy Olson was unimpressed and since 2019 has been looking into the controversial policy and recently signed a letter along with around 275 fellow players calling on the LPGA Tour to tighten up guidelines.

Olson claimed the guidelines had been loosened in recent years because of the threat of legal action.

“The issue has been there for 14 years since we changed our policy. We want it to be female at birth and you are female. Male at birth and you are male,’’ Olson said.

“Current players need their interests safeguarded as do those who created the LPGA Tour originally. Women started the LPGA Tour, a group called the 13 founders. They built this tour from the ground up going in their loaded vehicles from golf course to golf course, giving clinics and building public interest.

``Women did that for women. So it isn’t right to have what they’ve worked for hijacked by men who feel that they are women and have a distinct competitive advantage over us. It’s just not fair.”

Olson said the only safe way was to ban male born golfers completely.

``They can play on the male tours. A lot of people have talked about a transgender league and if people want to fund and start one up that’s fantastic.''

The upshot of all of this is the tour has listened and a competitive fairness gender policy will take effect from the start of the 2025 season. From then a player must be female at birth or have transitioned to female before going through male puberty to take part in LPGA or USGA governed events.

Said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan: “This will preserve the fairness and competitive equity of our elite competitions.

United States Golf Association chief executive Mike Whan said “We tried not to get into politics. We simply said where do we believe somebody medically would have a competitive advantage in the field. We needed to draw a line.”

Not surprisingly the aforementioned Davidson is not impressed and made a series of posts on Instagram.

The transgender Scottish-born golfer, who had earned an Epson Tour card after narrowly missing out on an LPGA card at q-school posted: “What a great birthday present for 2024. Having the greatest achievement I’ve earned in my life taken away from me. Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Banned from the Epson and LPGA. All the silence and people wanting to stay neutral thanks for nothing. This happened because of all of your silence.”

Davidson may have missed the point.