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The LPGA updated its gender policy Wednesday, icing out at least one openly transgender player in its ranks.
LPGA players will now either have to be assigned female at birth, or to have undertaken gender reassignment treatment before experiencing male puberty (beyond a certain stage or after age 12, whichever came first) and keep their testosterone levels below a certain amount since then.
“The policy—informed by a working group of top experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance and gender policy law—was developed with input from a broad array of stakeholders and prioritizes the competitive integrity of women’s professional tournaments and elite amateur competitions,” the announcement states. “This working group has advised that the effects of male puberty confer competitive advantages in golf performance compared to players who have not undergone male puberty.”
Recreational and “non-elite” LPGA events will remain open: “There is a place for all women to participate in golf through the broader LPGA community,” the policy reads.
Golfer Hailey Davidson will now no longer be able to compete. The 32-year-old from Scotland missed out on qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open by a shot this year but participated in LPGA pre-qualifying and qualifying events.
“Can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” Davidson posted on social media Wednesday. “Banned from the Epson and the LPGA. All the silence and people wanting to stay ‘neutral’ thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of all your silence.”
The previous policy said players could go through surgery after puberty and meet certain hormone requirements. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who abruptly announced Tuesday she will step down in early January, had previously said a review of the policy was taking place and changes would be implemented before the 2025 season.
In August, more than 275 female golfers signed a letter to the LPGA, USGA, and International Golf Federation expressing their concern about Davidson and asking the organizations to change their policies.
The policy change comes just over a week after a federal judge denied a motion to ban a player on the San José State women’s volleyball team from competing in the Mountain West conference tournament. The request was filed as part of a lawsuit from Mountain West volleyball players and coaches, led by the player in question’s teammate. The player has not publicly stated that she is transgender, and has been on the team since 2022.
Major women’s sports leagues in the U.S. have historically been accommodating to transgender and nonbinary players. The NWSL has one transgender player who identifies as nonbinary, and the WNBA had multiple players who use “they/them” pronouns last season. The LPGA’s regulations are now closer to those of the international bodies governing track and swimming, which made their participation policies more restrictive after several controversies surrounding trans and intersex athletes. The International Olympic Committee released a new framework around transgender and intersex athletes in 2021 that scrapped requirements around hormone levels.
Joanna Harper, an internationally recognized researcher on transgender sports issues, said the inconsistencies among global sports were not based on science.
“It has become apparent to me that in many cases, it’s more dependent on who runs the sporting governing body than on the physical parameters of the sport,” Harper told Front Office Sports. Harper, a transgender woman, is a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon Health & Sciences University who earned her Ph.D. studying transgender athletes.
Harper says she noticed a difference in her own golf game after she transitioned, and didn’t hit the ball as far anymore. (She has also authored several groundbreaking studies about transitioning and athletic performance.)
“There is little doubt that hormone therapy will have an effect on how far a trans woman hits the ball,” Harper says. “Will trans women still hit the ball farther than cis women? That may well be true. But there’s certainly no science that indicates that.”
