A transgender golfer who said she spent years fighting to compete has accused the USGA and the LPGA of gender identity discrimination.
Hailey Davidson filed a lawsuit against the USGA, LPGA, the Hackensack Golf Club, former LPGA pro Heather Daly-Donofrio, interim LPGA Commissioner Liz Moore, and Gregory Beringer, the head professional at Hackensack Golf Club.
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The suit said the USGA and LPGA updated their “Competitive Fairness Gender Policy” that barred transgender women and that Hackensack Golf Club aided and abetted the organizations in banning Davidson. The suit said the New Jersey golf club said it did not have “autonomy” and that it was dictated by the policies adopted by the USGA and the LPGA.
In 2024, the USGA introduced a policy stating that athletes must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before undergoing male puberty. Additionally, the athlete must have “continuously maintained the concentration of testosterone in their serum of less than 2.5 nanomoles” and continue to maintain it.
Hackensack Golf Club, the USGA and LPGA did not return requests for comment.
The complaint said Davidson spent her entire life fighting, first to walk after she was born with severe club feet that required multiple reconstructive surgeries and then for her right to play golf as a woman. The suit said Davidson began transitioning from male to female through hormone therapy in September 2015. She stated that she contacted the LPGA in 2016 to inquire about golfing.
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“That inquiry began what would be a 10-year fight between Hailey and the governing bodies of professional women golfers, the USGA and the LPGA,” the suit said.
The lawsuit accuses the two organizations of exerting “an incredible amount of control over Hailey’s ability to play golf and her personal medical information.”
“USGA and LPGA preyed on Hailey’s love of the game and desire to play to get the precise medical information that would allow them to exclude her from the sport,” said Susie Cirilli, Davidson’s attorney.
According to the lawsuit, the LPGA told Davidson she’d be able to compete in women’s events if she met their demands, which included hormone requirements, under a gonadectomy or a similar procedure and then wait two years. The USGA required the same demands and that she was “mired in the place forced upon her by the two governing organizations” between 2016 and 2021. The suit said she could not afford gender affirming surgery, thus hindering her dream of being a professional golfer.
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In January 2021, Davidson underwent gender-affirming surgery and informed the governing organizations. The suit said that when faced with Davidson’s eligibility to play, the USGA and LPGA told her that her word wasn’t enough and they needed medical proof.
The complaint stated Davidson was required to submit a medical packet, including an Authorization of Release of Medical Information waiver and that it allowed “unidentified ‘USGA medical consultants’ to contact ‘all treating physicians it deemed necessary.'” The suit said, to this day, Davidson still doesn’t know who has looked at her medical file.
The suit said the USGA “never communicated to Hailey what the actual medical requirements were” for her to be eligible for play.
Later in the year, Moore, who was the chief legal and technology officer for the LPGA at the time, told Davidson the policy included “an element of reciprocity” between the two organizations and that she would have to allow the LPGA to speak to the USGA and share info about the application and review process.
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“Hailey responded 21 minutes later that she very much wanted to sign the release,” the complaint said. “Liz Moore successfully dangled the carrot of competing in LPGA events in an effort to obtain more information that would allow them to control Hailey.”
She was finally able to compete in 2021, participating in three U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers, placing 16th out of 60 in May 2022, tied for 27th out of 62 in May 2023, and finishing third in May 2024. The third-place finish allowed her to earn an alternate position at the Women’s Open in 2024.
The suit said Daly-Donofrio reached out to Davidson in December 2025 and said that because of the policy change, she would be barred from playing USGA golf. When she continued trying to sign up for the U.S. Open qualifiers, she indicated that she was born male and was informed that she could not compete, but that if she signed up by saying she was born female, they would “rectify the issue in their system.”
The complaint said Daly-Donofrio told Davidson that she could compete in USGA events that weren’t specifically for women.
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When she sought to play in the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at the Hackensack Golf Course, which is open to the public, she was told by Beringer that “the club had no autonomy” and had to follow the USGA’s transgender ban, despite NJLAD.
The lawsuit outlined several instances where Davidson said it seemed as if the USGA was keeping tabs on her, including Daly-Donofrio requesting to follow her on social media.
The suit said the defendants violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination, intentionally inflicted emotional distress and that they conspired together against her to prevent her from playing as a transgender woman.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: LPGA, USGA sued by transgender golfer Hailey Davidson
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