Officials for the Ladies Professional Golf Association announced last week that men claiming transgender female identity will be unable to compete against actual women in their events.
The golf league said in a new policy effective next year that “players assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty” will not be eligible to compete in events like the LPGA Tour, the Epson Tour, and the Ladies European Tour. Their recreational programs “utilize different criteria to provide opportunities for participation in the broader LPGA community.”
“Our policy is reflective of an extensive, science-based and inclusive approach,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan commented in a press release about the move. “The policy represents our continued commitment to ensuring that all feel welcome within our organization, while preserving the fairness and competitive equity of our elite competitions.”
The release from the LPGA added that the policy was “informed by a working group of top experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance, and gender policy law.”
The move occurs after controversy over men claiming female identity reached the LPGA in recent months. Amy Olson, a professional golfer who played in the LPGA, denounced the participation of Hailey Davidson, a man who claims identity as a woman, in the LPGA Qualifying School, contending in a social media post that “these women have worked too hard and too long to have to stand by and watch a man compete for and take their spot.” The former elite golfer added in her post that “the only fair path forward is a policy based on sex, not gender.”
Davidson has meanwhile rebuked golfers who voice concern over him playing against women. “I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their own athletic failures,” he wrote on social media while practicing for the LPGA Qualifying School. “If you don’t take accountability for your failures then you will never actually be good enough to make it.”
The athlete played golf alongside other men at Wilmington University in Delaware before he started taking hormones in 2015 and underwent a purported sex-change operation in 2021.
Similar debates about the participation of males in female sports have impacted other athletics associations. Multiple collegiate volleyball teams recently refused to compete against San Jose State University since they have a six-foot-one man named Blaire Fleming playing on the team.
Surveys indicate that a large percentage of Americans believe self-described transgender athletes should not be permitted to compete in sports leagues opposite their actual sex.
