The LPGA and USGA on Wednesday issued new gender-related guidelines for competition eligibility, which limit top events to players who were born female or were born male and did not go through male puberty.
The professional golf organizations say the new guidelines, which go into effect in January, will help ensure that women’s golf will remain a fair playing field.
“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, which hosts the U.S. Women’s Open, among other high-profile events, said in a press release.
LPGA policy on transgender players
Under the LPGA’s previous gender policy, transgender women were allowed to compete if they “met hormone therapy requirements,” according to The Washington Post.
The policy was similar to gender rules currently governing a variety of professional and collegiate sports, which generally focus on testosterone levels rather than sex assigned at birth.
Now, it won’t be enough for a transgender player to have received gender-related hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgeries. Their eligibility will depend on whether they went through male puberty.
“Players assigned male at birth must prove they have not experienced any part of puberty beyond the first stage or after age 12, whichever comes first, and then meet limitation standards for testosterone levels,” The Associated Press reported.
Transgender players in LPGA
The LPGA and USGA policy update comes amid a broad debate over the place of transgender athletes in women’s sports and gender-related health care for minors.
Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a case about a Tennessee law barring transgender children and teens from a variety of gender-related medical treatments, like puberty blockers.
If that law and laws like it in nearly two dozen other states remain in place, it would be difficult for children in much of the United States to satisfy the new LPGA and USGA eligibility requirements.
The policy update also comes amid a more narrow debate over a transgender golfer who recently “earned partial status on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour,” per The Athletic.
The golfer, Hailey Davidson, who is 31, “will no longer be eligible to play in any LPGA, Epson Tour or Ladies European Tour events,” the article said.
In a social media post, Davidson expressed frustration with those who have not spoken up to defend transgender women.
“Can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” Davidson wrote Wednesday on an Instagram story, per The Associated Press. “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.”
