Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson has been banned from LPGA events after it updated its Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility, meaning that from the 2025 season, athletes must be either assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before going through male puberty to play in its competitions.
As well as the LPGA, the USGA has acted similarly, introducing a new Competitive Fairness Gender Policy that outlines the same stipulation.
The LPGA states it has made the change to its existing policy after a working group comprising experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance and gender policy law determined that “effects of male puberty confer competitive advantages in golf performance compared to players who have not undergone male puberty.”
The update means that Davidson will not be able to pursue a career on the Epson Tour despite earning her status for 2025 on the developmental circuit following a T95 in October’s second stage of the LPGA Q-Series.
Shortly after Davidson's appearance, it was reported by the Telegraph’s golf correspondent James Corrigan that the LPGA Tour was reviewing whether to ban male-born golfers from its events, with the policy update now clarifying the position.
Afterwards, Davidson also admitted that her career on the Epson Tour may end before it begins. She wrote on Instagram: “I am not going to get ahead of myself since if the LPGA changes there policy at the start of 2025, any and all status I just earned will be taken away.”
She also revealed she had required security at the event, adding: “Thank you to anyone who showed support this week on and off the course, especially the security personnel I had with me at all times while at the course due to all the extreme hate and threats.”
In addition, the new policy introduced by the USGA means that Davidson will no longer be able to try and qualify for the US Women’s Open, which falls under its remit.
Similar to the LPGA reasoning, the USGA states that “current scientific and medical research shows that sports performance differences exist between biological sexes and such differences begin to occur during the onset of puberty.”
The announcements from the LPGA and USGA come days after former pro Amy Olson claimed the LPGA founders’ work was being “hijacked” by transgender golfers.
The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) ambassador believes the LPGA Tour should only allow players who were born female to compete in the interest of competitive fairness and had called on it to tighten up guidelines.
She referenced similar policies that have now been introduced by the USGA and LPGA while also admitting that such moves could have a wider impact on society.
She said: “What you see a lot of organizations do is take what they call a middle ground, which is banning any athletes who transition after puberty. So if you undergo the hormone therapies or surgeries after puberty then you’re no longer eligible to participate.”
“It’s a step because there will be additional protections for women in that case, but I see that as incentivizing earlier transitions for children and I think that that should never be encouraged. So, in some ways it’s progress, but I think that it has a lot of other implications that we don’t want as society.”
The LPGA’s policy update comes almost 15 years after members voted to eliminate its "female at birth" requirement.
Hailey Davidson posted her reaction to the gender policy change on social media, saying she had experienced "the greatest achievement I’ve earned in my life taken from me”.
