The women's professional organizations USGA and LPGA are presenting the new guidelines, which have been developed with the help of a working group consisting of experts from, among other things, medicine and sports physiology. The working group believes that the effects of having undergone male puberty provide significant competitive advantages in golf.
"We felt that we wanted to be able to say with certainty in every women's competition that no one here has gained a competitive advantage based on their gender. This policy guarantees that", says Mike Whan, former LPGA commissioner and now CEO of USGA.
The new policy applies to the LPGA tour, the Epson tour, and the European tour, as well as all other LPGA-sanctioned elite competitions.
A player who is stopped by the new rules is Hailey Davidson, who this year was only one stroke away from qualifying for the US Open and who subsequently failed to qualify for the LPGA tour. 32-year-old Davidson began hormone treatment after turning 20 and changed her gender to female three years ago.
"Can't say I didn't see this coming", she writes disappointedly in an Instagram story.
"Banned from Epson and LPGA. All silence and people who want to be 'neutral' – thanks for absolutely nothing. This happened because of your silence".
