Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson came within one spot of qualifying for the 79th U.S. Women’s Open, the biggest championship in women’s golf.
Davidson posted rounds of 70-73 in the 36-hole qualifier at Bradenton (Florida) Country Club to finish at 1-over 143. Amateur Amelie Zalsman of St. Petersburg, Florida, medaled at the site after rounds of 66-73, finishing at 1-under 141. Another amateur, Pimpisa Sisutham of Thailand, shot 142 to qualify for the championship, held May 30-June 2 at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Country Club.
Only the top two players advanced. Davidson, who finished third, will be the site’s first alternate.
Davidson 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.
The NXXT was 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.
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.
Davidson earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington, 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 as well as the USGA’s.