Hundreds of female golfers have complained about the participation of Scottish-born transgender player Hailey Davidson in the penultimate stage of the LPGA Tour’s qualifying competition.
Davidson, a 31-year-old professional originally from Ayrshire but now based in Florida, has said that the intention is “to make Scotland proud” by earning a card on the women’s premier circuit.
But after progressing through August’s first stage of Q-School , the former player on a US male college team was accused of acting “unfairly”, with Amy Olson, a two-time major runner-up, railing against Davidson being allowed. “These women have worked too hard and too long to have to stand by and watch a man compete for and take their spot,” she said.
It has now emerged that this view was held by many in the field, with the International Women’s Forum revealing that 275 signed the letter sent to the LPGA, the US Golf Association and the International Golf Federation, urging Davidson’s removal from the tournament.
‘Male advantage in driving estimated at around 30 per cent’
“We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category,” the letter, as reported by OutKick, read. “Yet, the Ladies Professional Golf Association continues to propagate a policy that allows male athletes to qualify, compete and win in women’s golf, even as several national and international governing bodies of sport and state legislatures increasingly reject these unjust and inequitable policies that harm female athletes.
“LPGA policy does not explicitly state eligibility based on sex. 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. There are differences between the sexes – female and male – that specifically affect our sport of golf.
“The male advantage in driving the ball is estimated around a 30 per cent performance advantage; this is an enormous difference in the context of sport. Anatomical differences between males and females affect clubhead speed and regulating consistency at ball contact.
“Females have higher mean heart rates and encounter greater physiological demands while playing, especially at high altitudes. The anatomical differences are not removed with male testosterone suppression. There is no way to turn a male into a female. Being female is not equated to being male with a reduction in strength.”
The LPGA deems male-born golfers eligible if they have undergone gender reassignment surgery and met hormonal therapy requirements. Davidson meets these requirements after reportedly undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2021.
Davidson, who almost qualified for the US Women’s Open in June, has remained unapologetic and instead lashed out at the detractors. “I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their own athletic failures,” Davidson wrote on Instagram. “If you don’t take accountability for your failures then you will never actually be good enough to make it.”
With 195 players teeing up, and only those who finish in the top 35 and ties advancing to final qualifying in December, it is a tough ask, although all Davidson needs is to complete the 72 holes in Venice, Florida to ensure status on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s main feeder league.
Mimi Rhodes, a past winner of the Justin Rose Junior Telegraph Championship and the hero of last month’s Curtis Cup, is also in the hunt at the Plantation Country Club.
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