Players must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female before going through male puberty to compete in LPGA tournaments or the eight USGA championships for females under new gender policies published Wednesday.
The policies, which begin in 2025, follow more than a year of study involving medicine, science, sport physiology and gender policy law.
The updated policies would rule out eligibility for Hailey Davidson, who missed qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open this year by one shot and came up short in LPGA Q-school.
Davidson, who turned 32 on Tuesday, began hormone treatments when she was in her early 20s in 2015 and in 2021 underwent gender-affirming surgery, which was required under the LPGA’s previous gender policy. She had won this year on a Florida mini-tour called NXXT Golf until the circuit announced in March that players had to be assigned female at birth.
Have you ever golfed?
There are literally mens tees and women’s tees (and usually kids tees, too)
Women’s tees are closer to the hole. (Kids are closest)
Yes, but this is the pro level so imbalances due to gender are not as pronounced.
The LPGA players do not play from the ladies tees when on tour. The LPGA makes their own tee off areas for each tournament, which average a total of 6200 – 6600 yards. The overall yardage on traditional ladies tees is 4600 yards.
According to the LPGA, they create their own tee box for each tournament depending on where they are playing. So there is no set tee area that they consistently use. In other words, the LPGA tees off from a custom tee box.
