Hundreds of female golfers asking LPGA to keep transgender player Davidson from qualifying for tour

Hundreds of female golfers are petitioning the Ladies Professional Golfers Association to stop Scottish-born transgender player Hailey Davidson from playing in the final rounds of competition to qualify for a coveted spot on the women's tour. 

The 31-year-old Davidson, now based in Florida, has advanced to the second-to-last round of competition, this week, according the British newspaper The Telegraph.

“These women have worked too hard and too long to have to stand by and watch a man compete for and take their spot,” said former pro Amy Olson, among the first to complain about Davidson, who reportedly played on a U.S. male college team. 

Now, 275 female golfers have signed a letter sent to the LPGA and the US Golf Association urging Davidson’s removal from the qualifying tournament, according to the International Golf Federation.

“We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category,” reads the letter, as reported by sports website OutKick. “Yet, the [LPGA] continues to propagate a policy that allows male athletes to qualify, compete and win in women’s golf, even as several national and international governing bodies of sport and state legislatures increasingly reject these unjust and inequitable policies that harm female athletes."

The LPGA deems male-born golfers eligible if they have undergone so-called gender reassignment surgery and met hormonal therapy requirements. Davidson meets these requirements after reportedly undergoing that surgery in 2021, the Telegraph also reports. 

Davidson, who almost qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open in June, has said in response to the outcry: “I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their own athletic failures. If you don’t take accountability for your failures then you will never actually be good enough to make it.”

The competition on the LPGA Tour starts with 195 players, and only those who finish in the top 35 and ties advance to final qualifying in December.