Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson takes one step closer to LPGA card as tour continues gender policy review

“Third time’s a charm!” Davidson wrote on Instagram.

A total of 100 players advanced out of the LPGA’s Pre-Qualifying Stage (formerly Stage I) and among them was transgender golfer Hailey Davidson.

“Third time’s a charm!” Davidson wrote on Instagram.

Three years ago, Davidson became the second transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School, where she did not advance past the first stage. She tried again in 2022, missing the 54-hole cut by a single stroke.

This time around, Davidson tied for 42nd at Mission Hills Country Club with rounds of 72-72-69-71 to finish at 4 under. She now advances to the Qualifying Stage (formerly Stage II) October 15-18 in Venice, Florida. Those who complete the 72-hole event (play all four rounds) at Plantation Golf and Country Club will earn Epson Tour status based on their finish. Those who make the cut will advance to Final Qualifying, which will take place in December.

Amateur Ashley Menne won the Pre-Qualifying Stage with a 16-under total.

Days before the Pre-Qualifying event started, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan sent out a memo to LPGA and Epson Tour players regarding the tour’s Gender Policy. Golfweek confirmed that in the memo, Marcoux Samaan stated that the tour planned to conclude a lengthy review of its current policy by year’s end and would implement any updates to the policy before the 2025 season.

The commissioner stated that the tour’s top priority must be to have a policy that provides for fair competition and considers “first and foremost” competitive advantage.

In 2010, the LPGA voted to eliminate its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour.

Earlier this year, Davidson came within one spot of qualifying for the 79th U.S. Women’s Open, the biggest championship in women’s golf.

Davidson had primarily competed on NXXT Golf until the Florida-based mini tour announced in March – on International Women’s Day – that competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate.

A three-time winner on the tour, Davidson ranked second on the mini tour’s season standings at the time of the ban. She had played nine times this season on the NXXT.

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson banned from NXXT after Florida-based mini-tour changes gender policy

“It is crucial to uphold the competitive integrity that is the cornerstone of women’s sports,” the CEO said.

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson’s playing options just got significantly smaller.

NXXT Golf announced on Friday that, effective immediately, competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate. A statement from the tour notes that it underscores the organization’s commitment to “maintaining the integrity of women’s professional golf and ensuring fair competition.” The news comes on International Women’s Day.

“As we navigate through the evolving landscape of sports, it is crucial to uphold the competitive integrity that is the cornerstone of women’s sports,” said NXXT Golf CEO Stuart McKinnon in a statement.

“Our revised policy is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to celebrating and protecting the achievements and opportunities of female athletes. Protected categories are a fundamental aspect of sports at all levels, and it is essential for our Tour to uphold these categories for biological females, ensuring a level playing field.”

Davidson, a three-time winner on the tour, currently ranks second on the mini tour’s season standings. She has played nine times this season on the NXXT.

The NXXT is the second U.S. mini-tour to make such a change. Last month, the Arizona-based Cactus Tour announced on National Girls and Women in Sports Day that it had reinstated a female-at-birth requirement.

A number of LPGA players have used the mini-tour over the years to kick off rust and develop their games as amateurs and young pros. Past winners include three-time major winner Anna Nordqvist, 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champ Allisen Corpuz, Grace Kim, Mina Harigae, Gabriela Ruffels and Cheyenne Woods.

Bobbi Lancaster, a retired physician who became the first transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School, once spent time competing on the Cactus Tour. Lancaster recently told Golfweek that her views on allowing trans women to compete in elite women’s sports have changed.

Davidson’s victory on the NXXT in January got national attention after many believed her performance put her on the doorstep of the LPGA. The NXXT has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour, the developmental feeder tour for the LPGA. The top five earners on the NXXT points list will earn two exemptions into Epson Tour fields.

The fine print, however, details that for players to receive those Epson Tour exemptions, the NXXT must have a minimum of 10 events with an average of 40 players, and fields were falling well short of that number.

In the wake of the Davidson controversy, the NXXT initiated an anonymous poll among its players to gather their opinions on the tour’s gender policy, the results of which had not been made public.

The tour also requested that Davidson undergo additional testosterone testing to ensure compliance.

Davidson earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington University, an NCAA Division II school in Delaware, before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport, an D-III school in Virginia.

On Sept. 24, 2015 – a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm – Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments, and in January 2021 underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s Gender Policy.

Three years ago, Davidson became the second transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School and did not make the cut. She tried again in 2022, missing the 54-hole cut by a single stroke.

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Arizona-based mini tour reinstates female-at-birth policy in wake of recent transgender controversy

The gender policy change was announced on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

The Arizona-based Cactus Tour announced on National Girls and Women in Sports Day that its gender policy has changed, effective immediately. The women’s mini tour has reinstated a female-at-birth requirement.

The Cactus Tour kicks off its 2024 season Feb. 13 at Sun City Country Club. A number of LPGA players have used the mini tour over the years to kick off rust and develop their games as amateurs and young pros. Past winners include three-time major winner Anna Nordqvist, 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champ Allisen Corpuz, Grace Kim, Mina Harigae, Gabriela Ruffels and Cheyenne Woods.

Sophia Popov famously won the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open the same year she won three times on the Cactus Tour, when the mini tour carried on during the Covid-19 pandemic while other tours shut down.

Bobbi Lancaster, a retired physician who became the first transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School, once spent time competing on the Cactus Tour. Lancaster recently told Golfweek that her views on allowing trans women to compete in elite women’s sports have changed.

Now the former honors biology student can’t ignore what she believes the science proves: Transgender women who experienced male puberty have legacy advantages that no amount of hormones or surgeries can erase.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have transgender women like me competing against cisgender women in women’s sports,” she said. “Period, end of story.”

Lancaster’s belief that integrity must trump inclusivity comes at a time when another transgender athlete, Hailey Davidson, drew national attention for her recent victory on a Florida mini-tour.

While it wasn’t Davidson’s first professional victory, the fact that the NXXT Tour has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour prompted backlash as many believed Davidson was on the doorstep of the LPGA.

In the wake of the victory, NXXT CEO Stuart McKinnon came out with a statement addressing Davidson’s participation. The tour initiated an anonymous poll among its players to gather their opinions on the NXXT’s gender policy. The tour also requested that Davidson undergo additional testosterone testing to ensure compliance.

In 2010, the LPGA eliminated its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour.

Davidson has twice participated in Stage I of LPGA Q-School.

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Former transgender player on victory by transgender golfer Hailey Davidson: ‘I don’t think it’s fair’

Speaking with many women who play golf at the highest level, it’s clear that many would like to see changes.

Lauren Miller has played 56 holes alongside Hailey Davidson in recent weeks and estimates that, on average, Davidson hits it 10 to 20 yards past her off the tee. Sometimes, Miller — a former SMU golfer who now competes on mini-tours — will be right alongside her.

But on the first playoff hole of a recent NXXT Tour event at Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, Davidson smoked it 50 yards past her with a noticeable jump in swing speed. Miller said the ball came off like a rocket. Davidson reached a par-5 in two she hadn’t previously reached with a hybrid. Her iron shots down the stretch were higher, too.

“It was a completely different ball flight than I had witnessed over the previous 54 holes,” said Miller, who lost on the second playoff hole.

Davidson — believed to be the first transgender player to win a professional women’s golf event three years ago — has made much about her loss in distance over the years. Those who knew her well before her 2021 transition surgery, when she could hit it over 300 yards, thought she’d walk right onto the LPGA. Davidson said she averaged 255 yards off the tee three years ago and has since dipped to 245.

As for the changes Miller noticed in that playoff, Davidson said she swung out of her shoes because she had nothing to lose. Down by three shots with two holes in play in relegation, Davidson was all but ready to congratulate Miller.

After taking a big lash at it on the first playoff hole, Davidson said she still had 203 yards left on a 450-yard par 5 and hit the hardest 18-degree hybrid she’d hit in eight years.

As for the ball flight, Davidson said, she’s always been a low-ball hitter and if she hits one high, it’s because she’s connected on what she’s been working on with Tony Ziegler.

“I don’t have another gear,” she insisted.

Hailey Davidson
Hailey Davidson poses with the trophy after a recent win on the NXXT Tour. (courtesy Hailey Davidson)

A complicated topic that divides fans, competitors and rules makers, there are many questions about what is fair, what is right, and where those concerns intersect regarding transgender participants. There are numerous inquiries about natural advantages and disadvantages, and even past transgender participants don’t always see eye to eye.

Because the science isn’t conclusive, women’s golf has been left with plenty of opinion. And from speaking with many women who play golf at the highest level, it’s clear that many would like to see the LPGA make changes to its current policy.

Bobbi Lancaster’s opinion has flipped

A little more than a decade ago, Bobbi Lancaster became the first transgender athlete to compete in LPGA Qualifying School. The now-73-year-old physician says the LPGA pursuit was largely driven by innocence, mixed with a little bit of ignorance. Now the former honors biology student can’t ignore what she believes the science proves: Transgender women who experienced male puberty have legacy advantages that no amount of hormones or surgeries can erase.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have transgender women like me competing against cisgender women in women’s sports,” she said. “Period, end of story.”

Lancaster’s belief that integrity must trump inclusivity in elite women’s sports comes at a time when Davidson continues to draw national attention after her recent win. While this wasn’t Davidson’s first professional victory, the fact that the NXXT Tour has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour prompted backlash as many believed Davidson was on the doorstep of the LPGA.

While that’s far from the case, Davidson did twice participate in LPGA Q-School, missing the 54-hole cut by a single stroke in 2022 and narrowly missing out on a chance to at least significantly improve her Epson Tour status if not advance to the second stage.

Bobbi Lancaster, the first transgender player to go to LPGA Q-School, poses in a golf cart. (courtesy photo)

On Sept. 24, 2015 – a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm – Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments and in January 2021, underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s Gender Policy.

Davidson confirmed that she’d like to go back to LPGA Q-School in 2024, but said that it all comes down to finances.

In 2010, the LPGA voted to eliminate its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour. The 6-foot-1 Lancaster was the first to test that new policy at age 63. Davidson, a former NCAA Division II scholarship player on the men’s team, became the second.

“I was hoping that the sporting community would prefer to have the pendulum in one direction,” said Lancaster, “and I hoped that it would be in the direction of acceptance and inclusivity. That’s where I wanted it to be. Hey, just let us play. Let Hailey play; let Bobbi play, let Lia Thomas into the pool, etc, etc.

“But now that we’re starting to get more science here, my pendulum has swung the other way.”

Distance isn’t the only issue

In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee announced a major change to its transgender policy, leaving it up to individual sports to determine their rules. The following June, World Aquatics — the governing body of swimming — adopted a new policy that only allowed transgender women to compete if they transitioned before the age of 12, or before they reached Stage 2 on the Tanner Scale.

In March of last year, track and field’s World Athletics Council announced a similar ban on transgender athletes who have experienced male puberty.

Last week, the Telegraph was the first to report that swimmer Lia Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania athlete who made history by becoming the first trans woman to win an NCAA swimming title, filed a lawsuit to overturn the World Aquatics ban.

Lancaster looks at the research behind these decisions and believes the LPGA should follow suit in changing its transgender policies to ban trans women who experienced a testosterone-fueled puberty.

“Even though testosterone levels may be lowered for a year or two,” explained Lancaster, “there is indisputable evidence that the legacy skeletal, musculature, and aerobic changes remain unmitigated, and confer on these elite athletes an advantage.”

It’s more than how far a player can hit a ball that matters, she continued, pointing to the strength required to slash out of the rough or the ability to walk up and down hills with less fatigue. Even the ability to pound balls for a longer period is what she calls a legacy advantage.

Lancaster’s reading included a paper written by New Zealand University of Otego professor Alison K. Heather entitled “Transwomen Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology.”

Heather’s research includes the irreversible changes to male physiology, noting that “testosterone masculinizes the brain in utero and during early life … testosterone drives muscle mass, muscle fiber type and muscle memory. Most of the effects driven by testosterone cannot be reversed with estradiol (or cross) hormonal therapy.”

Heather notes that females have 10 to 12 percent smaller lung volume than males. Females also have a heart size that’s roughly 85 percent of males, relative to body size.

These are some of the legacy effects Lancaster now emphasizes as a reason for change.

“Because of the male puberty, you got to be a certain height, you got a certain skeletal structure – usually taller, at the elite level – longer legs, bigger hands. These are all levers. These are all what gifts males in general have that are advantages that can’t be undone by going on hormones or having surgery to remove your testicles,” Lancaster said.

“Your cardiac size, your cardiac output. They’re there.”

Amy Olson plays her shot on the 4th tee during the first round of the Palos Verdes Championship Presented by Bank of America at Palos Verdes Golf Club on April 28, 2022 in Palos Verdes Estates, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Veteran LPGA player Amy Olson, who is now on maternity leave, believes the tour should return to requiring that athletes be female at birth. Olson said there are many players who privately agree that the tour’s rules need to change, but few are willing to speak out.

“I think what women’s sports in general has to decide,” said Olson, “is if it’s worth it for there to be a category for women to be around for our daughters.”

While the threat of another lawsuit undoubtedly plays a large role in decision-making, Olson points out that the threat works both ways. Should a transgender woman earn an LPGA card and replace a biological female, the threat of a lawsuit against the tour could be just as strong.

“We as women now have to be willing to take a risk,” said Olson. “What is courage if there isn’t risk involved?”

Academics weigh in: ‘It’s a critical question’

In 2019, some of exercise science professor Gregory Brown’s students attended an NCAA Division II women’s track meet in which CeCé Telfer became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA title.

Brown’s students returned to class asking, “How is this allowed?”

The professor’s interest was piqued.

“The number that gets put out there a lot of times is that men are 30 to 60 percent stronger than women, which really depends on which muscle group you’re measuring, which type of lift,” said Brown, an exercise physiologist at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “There’s another paper that came out just recently that said the difference is more like between 40 to 120 percent, with an average of 73 percent.

“If a man is, say, 30 percent stronger than a woman and undergoes testosterone suppression and estrogen administration, he only loses about 5 to 9 percent of that strength. That still doesn’t equal the playing field between men and women.”

Even before puberty, Brown notes, there are smaller differences. Boys are 3 to 4 percent faster at running; they’re 1 to 2 percent faster at swimming. When throwing a shotput or javelin, boys throw 15 to 20 percent further than girls. Puberty accelerates those differences.

“We just don’t know what happens with puberty blockers,” said Brown. “We really can’t say in any way shape or form based on any type of evidence, that if a man uses puberty blockers before Tanner Stage 2, that he is equivalent to females going through female puberty.”

What’s more, he continued, the long-term effects of puberty blockers on areas like brain development and cognition remain unknown.

University of Washington endocrinologist and professor of medicine Dr. Bradley Anawalt is a member of an NCAA Committee dealing with competitive safeguards and medical aspects of sports and is a consultant to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Committee.

When asked if it’s possible to create a policy that will give all competing athletes a sense of fairness he sounded skeptical.

“It’s a critical question. The short answer is no,” Anawalt said. “Even if someday, years or decades from now, we figure out all of the science of puberty’s influence on athletic advantage, there will still be doubts about fairness based on other differences between individuals who are born with male genitalia and XY sex chromosomes and individuals born with female genitalia and XX sex chromosomes.

“No policy or accommodation will leave all competing athletes or all members of the general public with a consensus of fairness about hormone therapies that might confer a competitive advantage.”

In 2004, Mianne Bagger became the first transwoman to play in a professional golf tournament at the Women’s Australian Open. She’d go on to become the first transgender woman to qualify for the Ladies European Tour.

Bagger, now retired from tour life, told Golfweek three years ago that as she followed the emerging science around trans athletes, she began to lean more toward the exclusion of transgender women from women’s sports.

“Everyone has to be reasonable in this,” she said. “You can’t just deny some physiological advantages for the sake of inclusion.”

Even back then, Bagger wanted to see the LPGA extend its period of ineligibility to three years after gender surgery. The LPGA and USGA had instead recently gone the other direction, removing a two-year waiting period after surgery.

When asked for comment about where the LPGA currently stands on its gender policy, the tour told Golfweek, “In consultation with relevant medical, sports science and legal experts, we’re continuing review of our policy.”

Lauren Miller: ‘This is way bigger than just me’

The NXXT’s Miller decided that she wanted to pursue golf on a professional level around age 9 and, after receiving three degrees, including two master’s degrees from Mississippi State and SMU, Miller signed up for Stage I of LPGA Q-School last summer.

While her first stab at an LPGA card didn’t go as planned, the Niceville, Florida, native was eager to begin her first full year of professional golf on mini-tours like the NXXT, where she met Davidson in the playoff on Jan. 17 at Mission Inn Resort and Club, about an hour away from where the LPGA season was kicking off at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Miller’s first time competing against Davidson came at a U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in 2021. She recalled standing on the range warming up at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Florida, and hearing a different sound coming off the clubface a few spots down.

The following year, Miller found herself in a Ph.D. level gender in sport class after the sport funding course she needed to complete her master’s program at MSU was unavailable.

For three hours a week, Miller and one other student discussed and debated topics with their professor, including transgender athletes in elite women’s sports.

Fast forward to January 2024, when Miller suddenly found herself quietly in the center of the Davidson controversy. While the 22-year-old admittedly let that tournament victory slip away, Miller sees a bigger picture at play.

“If I win that golf tournament, no one really knows,” said Miller. “It does not get the press or the attention that it does now.

“If I had to lose for there to be more awareness brought to this, then I’m OK with that, as this is way bigger than just me.”

Former SMU golfer Lauren Miller poses after NCAA regional qualifying. (courtesy Lauren Miller)

Born with clubfoot (on both feet), Davidson underwent 30 procedures growing up, wearing casts up to the knee as a toddler. Her last surgery came at age 17. The impact of the painful condition still hinders lower body strength and stamina on the golf course.

Davidson believes the rules in swimming that led to Thomas’ NCAA success were too lax and are partly to blame for the backlash she now feels.

“Because that happened,” she said, “all the hate is being directed at me because everyone thinks it’s the same thing.”

Davidson withdrew from an NXXT event earlier this week thinking it might help calm the storm. After talking to family, however, she regretted the move and tried to get back in but was too late.

Friends in golf who showed support on social media after her recent victory, Davidson said, took down their posts in a matter of minutes.

“It’s a different animal of hate than people are probably used to,” she said.

Betsy King: ‘I just think it’s unfair’

Growing up in Indianapolis, there was no organized state high school basketball tournament for Therese Hession to play in. Female teams made up their own schedule and stayed within the city.

In the fall of 1975, Hession helped start the women’s golf program at SMU before joining the LPGA. After a decade on tour, she began her coaching career at Ohio State in 1991, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as director of golf for both the men’s and women’s programs at a Power Five conference school.

Hession, like Olson, would like to see the LPGA go back to its original female-at-birth rule, noting that it doesn’t matter if it’s one transwoman trying to get on tour or 10.

“I just really feel like everything I‘ve done in my life, I’ve had to scratch and claw to get to move the bar,” she said, “and I feel like this would set the bar back for women.”

Judy Rankin, a 26-time winner on the LPGA and Hall of Fame member who for a long time shaped coverage of the women’s game from the broadcast booth, agrees with Hession, saying that someone who has had years of male masculine development should not be able to compete on the LPGA.

1998 Solheim Cup
Betsy King of the USA checks the wind direction in the 1998 Solheim Cup between Europe and the USA played at Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio, USA. (Photo: Craig Jones/Allsport)

Betsy King, another LPGA Hall of Famer and six-time major champion, was a three-sport athlete at Furman and recalled going to the president’s office each year with other female athletes to ask for more money.

At the national championships her sophomore year, King said the Paladins had only one team shirt, and they saved it for the final round.

“We were in a position where we as athletes stood up more,” said King, “because no one else was doing it.”

Count King as another player who’d like to see the LPGA return to a female-at-birth policy.

“I’m obviously not an expert in the science of it,” said King, “but as an athlete, it just is so apparent to me that even if you’ve had the surgery and been on hormones, there are differences that exist between males and females, that even if you transition, you can’t change that.

“I just think it’s unfair.”

‘The children didn’t create this mess’

After Davidson took to social media to publicly break down her yardages on the first hole of that playoff, Miller pointed out that the course was extremely wet that day, and that it was 45 degrees outside. The 247 yards Davidson hit it on that first playoff hole, she said, was all carry.

Miller, who didn’t really want to get into a back-and-forth with Davidson, also wanted to reiterate what others, including Lancaster have said, that distance is only one part of the equation.

“I share my story not because I’m angry at Hailey for beating me, and I just want to get back at Hailey,” said Miller. “This is way bigger than the story that happened on a small mini-tour in Florida. … Whether Hailey hit it 210 or 290, it wouldn’t change my opinion on this matter.”

Not long after Golfweek first spoke with Lancaster for this story, she sent a follow-up text message noting that she felt low. While Lancaster, who essentially went on a speaking tour after taking up professional golf, realized that what’s unfolding now isn’t all her fault, the pursuit of a dream did draw attention to transgender women competing in women’s sports, and scrutiny and backlash followed.

“Now, in many places, trans kids can’t receive medical care or play sports,” Lancaster wrote. “The children didn’t create this mess. It was people like me, who inadvertently pushed the boundaries until science and the world pushed back.

“Now I’m trying to be a small part of the solution.”

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson supports pro tour’s decision to poll players about gender policy

Davidson told Golfweek she’s received between five and 10 death threats in recent days.

The NXXT Women’s Pro Tour has responded to the controversy surrounding transgender player Hailey Davidson, who won a recent event and tops the tour’s points list.

Stuart McKinnon, CEO of the NXXT, formerly the East Coast Women’s Pro Golf Tour, came out with a statement on Monday addressing Davidson’s participation. The tour has initiated an anonymous poll among its players to gather their opinions on the NXXT’s gender policy.

Davidson told Golfweek she had no qualms with the poll.

“At this point, we’re trying anything to see if we can cool the fire down a little,” said Davidson, who added that “generally a lot of the hate comes from people who aren’t playing.”

McKinnon’s memo said the tour also requested that Davidson undergo additional testosterone testing to ensure compliance.

“The recent discussions surrounding Hailey Davidson’s participation and success on our tour have highlighted a range of viewpoints,” McKinnon wrote. “The NXXT Women’s Pro Tour acknowledges these perspectives while emphasizing that our policies and decisions are guided by the frameworks set by the LPGA and USGA. Our primary focus remains on supporting our players’ aspirations and contributing to their journey towards the LPGA.”

Davidson earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington University, an NCAA Division II school in Delaware, before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport, an NCAA Division III school in Virginia.

On Sept. 24, 2015 – a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm – Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments, and in January 2021 underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s Gender Policy.

Davidson, who works in social media for NBC/Peacock, said she has deleted her Twitter app after claiming the top prize at the NXXT Women’s Classic on Jan. 17 at Mission Inn Resort and Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. She estimates that she’s received between five and 10 death threats in recent days, though she tries not to read as much.

“It comes with the territory, I suppose,” she said. “Someone who is at home really frustrated with themselves trying to take it out on me. If I don’t laugh, I’m going to be miserable.”

Hailey Davidson
Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson. Photo by Hailey Davidson

Three years ago, Davidson became the second transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School and did not make the cut. She won her first professional title on the NWGA tour (National Women’s Golf Association), beating several LPGA players in the process, including Paula Creamer and Perrine Delacour. Davidson is believed to be the first transgender player to win a professional women’s golf event.

The NXXT has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour, the developmental feeder tour for the LPGA. The top five earners on the NXXT points list will earn two exemptions into Epson Tour fields.

While it looks like Davidson might be closing in on those exemptions, it’s actually a taller task than many believe. For players to receive those Epson Tour exemptions, the NXXT must have a minimum of 10 events with an average of 40 players. So far, the NXXT fields are well short of that number.

Davidson beat 24 players in the three-round event earlier this week. She was three shots back with two to play and wound up clinching her first title in 2 ½ years in a playoff.

Davidson already took another testosterone test and expects to get the results back later Monday. She said she’s not particularly worried about her place on the NXXT going forward, given that she meets the requirements of both the LPGA’s and USGA’s gender policies.

Davidson confirmed that she’d like to go back to LPGA Q-School later this year, but said that it all comes down to finances.

As for the growing controversy surrounding her, Davidson said that any time something like this happens, people who don’t follow golf think she’s two swings away from the LPGA.

“Oh yeah,” said Davidson, “(they say) ‘she’ll be out there tomorrow on TV, destroying everything.’ ”

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Transgender woman wins another Florida mini-tour event but still faces long road to LPGA

Hailey Davidson beat 24 players in the three-round event earlier this week.

Hailey Davidson won another professional title on a Florida mini tour yet, despite the headlines that are swirling, still has a long way to go before reaching the highest levels of women’s golf.

Davidson, believed to be the first transgender player to win a professional women’s golf event three years ago, claimed top prize at the NXXT Women’s Classic Jan. 17 at Mission Inn Resort and Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, not too far from the LPGA’s season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

The NXXT, formerly the East Coast Women’s Pro Golf Tour, has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour, the developmental feeder tour for the LPGA. The top five earners on the NXXT points list will earn two exemptions into Epson Tour fields.

While Davidson currently leads that points list with 1,320 points, a full 150 points ahead of second place, she still might not earn any exemptions. In order to receive the Epson Tour exemptions, the NXXT must have a minimum of 10 events with an average of 40 players. So far, the NXXT fields are well short of that number.

Davidson beat 24 players in the three-round event earlier this week. She was three shots back with two to play and wound up clinching her first title in 2 ½ years in a playoff.

Should the NXXT fields grow considerably in the coming weeks – the tour goes from November to March – and reach the minimum requirement, Davidson would need to win an Espon Tour event to achieve status on that tour. A top-10 finish in an Epson Tour event as a non-member would secure her a spot in the next week’s field.

While Davidson is still miles from an LPGA card, her feat garnered plenty of attention over the weekend.

“It’s always interesting how no one gets angry until there is any form of success,” Davidson wrote in an Instragram post on Saturday. “While this win was amazing, unlike every article is saying, I am so incredibly far from the LPGA Tour with a lot of work to be done to possibly earn my way there one day.”

Three years ago, Davidson became the second transgender player to compete in LPGA Q-School and did not make the cut. She won her first professional title on the NWGA tour (National Women’s Golf Association), beating several LPGA players in the process, including Paula Creamer and Perrine Delacour.

The first, Bobbi Lancaster, was a 63-year-old physician from Arizona who earned Symetra Tour status in 2013, but ultimately spent her time traveling the country as a human rights advocate.

Davidson earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington University, an NCAA Division II school in Delaware, before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport, an NCAA Division III school in Virginia.

On Sept. 24, 2015 – a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm – Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments and in January 2021, underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s Gender Policy.

Transgender golfer receives death threats after victory in Australia

The celebrations quickly turned sour as the transgender athlete’s playoff victory became awash in controversy.

The early moments of Breanna Gill’s first professional win on the WPGA Tour of Australasia looked like any other women’s tournament. Players came rushing out to shower Gill with champagne on Bonville Golf Resort’s 18th green, and she savored the moment.

“I always thought in my head if I ever got the opportunity to actually win a golf tournament and the girls happen to come running out on the green, I was going to stand there and take it. I wasn’t going to run away,” said Gill in a release.

“If you get yourself in that position, you just take it. It was so special.”

The celebrations quickly turned sour, however, as the transgender athlete’s playoff victory at the Australia Women’s Classic April 2 in New South Wales became awash in controversy.

Gill, No. 393 in the Rolex Rankings, began receiving death threats not long after the WPGA Tour posted about her victory on its Twitter account. While the tweet didn’t note that Gill is a transgender athlete, other accounts did and the ensuing backlash was so great the tour’s Twitter account was made private. Gill also hid her accounts.

WPGA chief Karen Lunn told The Sydney Morning Herald that the tournament deleted the tweets over concerns for Gill’s welfare, noting that Lunn had received death threats along with other governing members of the WPGA.

“Everyone’s worried about her welfare,” Lunn told the paper. “It’s obviously a very tough time.”

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On May 13, 2021, U.S. pro golfer Hailey Davidson won her first professional title on the NWGA tour (National Women’s Golf Association), beating several LPGA players in the process, including Paula Creamer and Perrine Delacour. Davidson is believed to be the first trans woman to win a professional tournament in the U.S. and now owns several titles. She has also twice participated in LPGA Q-School, though she has yet to advance past the second stage.

In 2004, Mianne Bagger became the first openly transgender woman to play in a professional golf tournament at the Women’s Australian Open. She’d go on to become the first transgender woman to qualify for the Ladies European Tour.

Bagger is now retired from tour life but continues to follow the emerging science around trans athletes and what kind of advantage going through puberty as a male might give trans women over cisgender women (those whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth). The science isn’t settled, Bagger told Golfweek in 2021. In fact, if anything, she believes it’s leaning more toward the exclusion of transitioned women in women’s sport.

“Everyone has to be reasonable in this,” she said. “You can’t just deny some physiological advantages for the sake of inclusion.”

Bagger would like to see the LPGA’s hormone therapy requirement extended beyond one year.

“It’s quite clear that merely one year of hormone therapy is not at all adequate,” said Bagger. “That’s if it is deemed acceptable for transitioned women to continue competing in women’s sport.”

She’d also like to see a minimum of three years of an ineligible period after gender reassignment surgery. The LPGA and USGA recently removed a two-year waiting period after surgery.

2007 ANZ Ladies Masters - Day 2
Mianne Bagger of Denmark lines up a putt during the second round of the 2007 ANZ Ladies Masters at the Royal Pines East Course on February 9, 2007, at the Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Last June, World Aquatics, swimming’s governing body, formerly known as FINA, adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” that only allows athletes who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events. The organization is also exploring a new “open competition category.”

In addition, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, put a policy in effect last month that prohibits transgender women who went through male puberty from being able to compete in women’s events at international competitions.

Twenty states have placed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Kansas, which banned transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports through college. The new law goes into effect this summer.

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Vermont HS girls basketball team forfeits rather than face transgender opponent

The Mid Vermont Christian School (Mt.) girls basketball team forfeited rather than play against a transgender opponent at Long Trail School.

The Mid Vermont Christian School (Vt.) girls basketball team was scheduled to play Long Trail School (Vt.) on February 21 as part of a tournament. However, the team decided to forfeit the game rather than play against a transgender opponent on the Long Trail roster.

MCVS head coach Vicky Fogg released a statement explaining their decision, per CNN:

“We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players… Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.”

The Long Trail team advanced to the next round of the tournament. They did not offer a comment on Mid Vermont Christian’s decision to forfeit, according to CNN.

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Transgender woman wins Florida mini-tour event, sets sights squarely on LPGA

Davidson is believed to be the first transgendered woman to win a professional tournament in the U.S.

It was, by all accounts, an unforgettable day for Hailey Davidson. On May 13, Davidson drained a 5-footer for par on the 18th hole to win her first professional title, topping LPGA player Perrine Delacour in the process. That same day she also received an email from the USGA stating that she’d met the organization’s Gender Policy eligibility criteria and can now compete in its championships. She hopes to soon hear similar news from the LPGA via a reciprocity agreement.

“I’m not just going to be stuck on mini-tours,” said Davidson, who is believed to be the first transgendered woman to win a professional tournament in the U.S.

Davidson, 28, works in social media for NBC’s Peacock division under the Golf Channel umbrella but has dreams of competing on the LPGA. In January, Davidson underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure. She’s been undergoing hormone treatments since Sept. 24, 2015, a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm.

“We are currently reviewing Hailey’s application to participate in LPGA Tour events under the LPGA’s gender policy,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, the LPGA’s chief tour operations officer. “The policy is designed to be a private and confidential process between the LPGA and the athlete.”

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In 2010, the LPGA voted to eliminate its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour.

Earlier this year, the USGA changed its Gender Policy to shorten the length of time transgender athletes had to wait to compete. Under the previous policy, a player must have undergone gender reassignment surgery at least two years prior to the entry deadline.

The revised policy eliminated the two-year period. Gender reassignment surgery must now be completed prior to the championship entry deadline.

The LPGA had a similar two-year rule when Davidson first started looking into its policies six years ago. She pushed to have it changed, and it too was recently removed.

“To be honest, you’re really just putting up a two-year roadblock to hope that we give up by the time that two years finishes,” she said. “That’s all I ever saw it as.”

Davidson got word in early February, while still in Baltimore recovering from surgery, that she could compete in National Women’s Golf Association events. A tournament-hungry Davidson immediately signed up for a tournament scheduled two months later.

On April 20, Davidson competed in her first professional event in six years. She shot 72-72 and finished tied for sixth, three shots behind Paula Creamer and five shots behind winner Megan Osland.

Davidson said she’s lost 9 mph in swing speed and hits it roughly 30 yards shorter off the tee since beginning hormonal treatments. Her doctor required that she lose weight before surgery, roughly 60 pounds, and Davidson reached that goal and then just kept going, losing 90 pounds in the last 300 days. She stayed away from any weight training in the process, doing whatever she could to trim muscle mass.

“Any advantage that existed is fully gone,” she insisted.

Davidson prepares for a banquet prior to the first round of a college tournament while competing for Christopher Newport University in the spring of 2013 (courtesy photo).

The last tournament Davidson competed in as a male was U.S. Open local qualifying in 2015 at Admiral’s Cove in Jupiter, where she lost in a 10-for-1 playoff.

Several weeks ago, Davidson competed in her first U.S. Women’s Open qualifier. While she had permission from the organization to compete in the qualifier, she still hadn’t been cleared for a championship since more information was still required. Davidson shot 1 under in the first round of sectional qualifying at Oceanside Country Club but struggled down the stretch, noting that she couldn’t get out of her mind the fact that even if she finished in the top two, she still might not get to Olympic Club.

“No matter how good I play,” she told herself, “it’s not up to me. Somebody else gets to decide my fate. As a male, you’re taught to go put your mind to it – you can do it.”

She ultimately tied for 10th after rounds of 71-77.

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Davidson, who now lives in Kissimmee, Florida, was born with her feet backward, requiring dozens of procedures throughout her childhood to correct. As a result, any sport that involved running wasn’t an option. Davidson said she grew up an angry golfer, prone to breaking clubs. For most of her life in the game, Davidson did everything she could to hide her truth given the conservative nature of the sport.

“I did everything I could to shove it away,” she said.

At the small, eight-player NWGA event on Thursday at Providence Golf Club, Davidson opened with a pair of bogeys in the final round.

“Back when I was a male, I would’ve lost it,” she said. “Probably would’ve shot 80 and my mind would’ve exploded.”

Several months ago, Davidson began working with PGA Tour Champions player Skip Kendall, mostly on putting, and has her eyes set squarely on LPGA Q-School later this summer.

Transgender athletes must indicate to the tour their desire to apply for LPGA qualifying by June 25. The first stage of Q-School takes place Aug. 19-22 in California at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage (Dinah Shore and Pete Dye) and Shadow Ridge Golf Club in Palm Desert. The entry fee alone for Stage I is $2,500. There are three total stages.

Davidson started a GoFundMe account to help realize her dream of becoming the first transgender athlete to earn LPGA membership. She has around $3,500 of her $25,000 goal.

“As cool as it would be the first person to do something,” said Davidson, “to be honest, right now could not be a better time for me to hopefully keep pushing forward and maybe break out, because there is so much anti-transgender legislation. … I feel like actually having representation on any professional sports level will give kids so much more hope.

“When I was growing up that didn’t exist.”