The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the United States Golf Association (USGA) have updated their gender policies, which will go into effect in 2025. In official releases Wednesday, Dec. 4, the LPGA and USGA announced that players must be assigned female at birth, or have been male at birth but did not go through male puberty before transitioning, to compete in most tournaments.
For the LPGA, the new guidelines will apply to all tournaments.
The LPGA explained that the new gender policy was developed after a “working group of top experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance, and gender policy law… advised that the effects of male puberty confer competitive advantages in golf performance compared to players who have not undergone male puberty.”
LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said, “The policy represents our continued commitment to ensuring that all feel welcome within our organization, while preserving the fairness and competitive equity of our elite competitions.”
For the USGA, its new “Competitive Fairness Gender Policy” applies to eight of its championships.
The official release states, “We recognize that scientific studies show sports performance differences exist between biological sexes and that those performance differences begin to occur during the onset of puberty. These differences are primarily due to the exposure of substantially higher levels of testosterone in biological males during puberty and beyond. Accordingly, this USGA Competitive Fairness Gender Policy establishes the gender eligibility criteria for any athlete wishing to compete in USGA championships or as a member of a USGA team, and places conditions on competition as necessary to ensure that competitive fairness is maintained.”
The updated gender policies have a particular impact on one golfer –– transgender player Hailey Davidson, 32, who last competed as a male in 2015.
Davidson, born male, began medically transitioning to the gender identity of a woman at around 22 years old, undergoing gender-affirming surgery in 2021.
Davidson competed on the NXXT Women’s Pro Golf Tour and finished 95th at the second stage of LPGA Q School in October.
Davidson’s hopes of advancing in a professional career, either competing in the LPGA or Epson Tours, were quashed by the implementation of the new gender policies.
In multiple Instagram posts, Davidson responded to the news, writing, “Can’t say I didn’t see this coming… 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.”
Both the LPGA and USGA say they will continue to monitor and evaluate their policies, reserving the right to amend the policies at any time.
