Transgender athlete Hailey Davidson must recognize that golf is a game of integrity and withdraw from female competition.
Then the Ladies Professional Golf Association should follow suit, seize this chance to reverse their grave mistake – and restore the spirit of one of the longest-running women’s professional sports associations in the world.
Let me be clear – I do not arrive at these conclusions easily.
As the world’s greatest athlete at 26 years old, a lifelong news and sports commentator, and the patriarch of one of the world’s most famous families, I have a duty to add my voice to the furious, evolving debate over transgenderism and elite athletic competition.
This divisive issue has exploded yet again as 30-year-old Davidson is vying to earn a spot on the LPGA tour after winning the NXXT Women’s Classic last week.
Today, far too many are afraid to speak out at all for fear of cancellation or retaliation.
Well, I am not afraid – and my perspective, humbly, can cut through so much noise.
When I competed in the Olympics, my competition was all I thought about. I deeply respected and, of course, devoted every fiber of my being to defeating them on a level playing field.
But, respectfully, Davidson (who asks to be addressed with they/them pronouns) cannot claim to compete with that same esprit de corps.
I am a transgender person who picked up the game of golf in my 50s, playing as an amateur, non-competitively, alongside men and women of all ages. I know for certain that there are physical differences between men and women that cannot be erased by modern medicine – especially after individuals go through male puberty.
And Davidson, who began gender transition in their early 20s and underwent gender reassignment surgery six years later, is stronger than the rivals.
Davidson has responded to some of this criticism – claiming that their strength has significantly declined since ‘transitioning’.
‘It’s crazy the amount of misinformed hatred I have received so far today,’ Davidson wrote on Instagram. ‘All of these people (think) I hit it 300 yards or even 280 yards. How about 250 on a good day.’
Perhaps that’s true. But a 250-yard drive would place Davidson inside the top 13 longest-driving LGPA players today.
Davidson was never so dominant as a male athlete.
I have had several off-the-record conversations with people in the competitive golf world, including those with the PGA, LPGA, LIV, Aramco, ownership groups and sponsors.
Their private feedback is overwhelmingly consistent.
Davidson was a mediocre male golfer, who never had a real chance at making it in the PGA. But now Davidson is in the running for one of the most highly coveted spots in women’s sports.
How is that fair to women?
Why can’t Davidson, who earned a college scholarship as a male athlete, compete against men?
The telling answer that some trans athletes in the golf world – and beyond – will never admit is that they’d never make that cut.
Davidson has become illustrative of what many trans people and allies dread – a seemingly self-centered individual who is not thinking about the consequences of their actions and may, in fact, cause harm to others.
Finally, I ask the LPGA: isn’t time you admit that you’ve made a misstep?
The LPGA was formed in 1950 by 13 ambitious women who wanted to give lady golfers a space in which to compete and win. The PGA tour, founded about 30 years prior, had always been open to men and women. But the only time a woman ever made the cut at a PGA tour event was in 1945 at the Los Angeles Open.
It was not until 1981 that Kathy Whitworth became the first female player to earn $1 million in career earnings. Today, professional female golfers on the LPGA tour play for $118 million in total prize money.
That’s an incredible accomplishment.
The LPGA tour has also been on the forefront of the struggle for equal rights and notably rejected a ‘Caucasians Only’ policy prior to the first black member joining the tour in 1963.
To the credit of the tour, I believe the heart of the LPGA has been in the right place. However, when the association voted to remove the sex assigned ‘at – birth’ requirement from their bylaws in 2010 and allow transgender persons who had undergone sexual reassignment surgery to compete they made an error.
The LPGA’s ill-fated decision set it down a slippery slope. More opportunities are likely to be taken away from women, further undermining the mission of the LPGA and casting a negative light on transgender people.
This is not about one person, one governing body or one sport.
This is a simple issue of fairness… and integrity.
Golf should lead the way.