The LPGA and USGA updated their gender policies for competition eligibility, allowing only athletes assigned female at birth or assigned male at birth who did not undergo male puberty to compete in LPGA and USGA events. The guidelines will go into effect starting in the 2025 season, the two organizations announced Wednesday.
“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 USGA said in a release.
The LPGA said it employed a “top group of experts in medicine, science, sport physiology, golf performance and gender policy law” and they advised the LPGA that “the effects of male puberty confer competitive advantages in golf performance compared to players who have not undergone male puberty.”
Previously, athletes who transitioned from male to female after undergoing male puberty were eligible to participate in LPGA and USGA events. The USGA hosts the U.S. Women’s Open, among other national events.
“Individuals who have undergone gender reassignment from male to female after puberty are eligible for membership and/or participation in tournaments, provided they comply with the eligibility requirements set forth below and provide certain documentation to LPGA (the suitability and acceptance of each as determined in LPGA’s sole discretion) in accordance with this policy,” the former LPGA policy read on its website before Wednesday’s announcement.
In 2010, LPGA players voted to remove the “female at birth” clause from its policy shortly after a transgender woman sued the tour in federal court. Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who stepped down Monday as commissioner, effective Jan. 9, 2025, said in August that the LPGA was reviewing its gender policy.
There are currently no known transgender golfers playing regularly on the LPGA Tour. However, under the new guidelines, transgender professional golfer Hailey Davidson, who recently competed in the LPGA qualifying series and earned partial status on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour, will no longer be eligible to play in any LPGA, Epson Tour or Ladies European Tour events. Davidson, who played men’s college golf at Wilmington University and Christopher Newport University, began transitioning in 2015 and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2021. The Scottish-born golfer is 31 years old.
Davidson’s emergence reignited interest in the LPGA’s stance on the issue, and the lack of updates on the LPGA’s gender policy was a source of recent frustration for some players. Professional golfers Lauren Miller, Hannah Arnold, Dana Fall and Amy Olson all publicly backed the Independent Women’s Forum’s efforts to bar Davidson and other future transgender athletes from competing on the LPGA Tour.
“I’m glad to do my part in keeping women’s sports female,” Arnold said in a statement. “I consider myself very fortunate to reap from the spoils of the LPGA founders and Title IX trailblazers. But the fight isn’t over and we must carry the torch to the next generation of female athletes.”
“We need to protect current and future women golfers,” Fall said in a statement. “Having biological men compete against us is simply not fair.”
(Photo: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)
