Trans Golfer Went Easy On Female Opponents, Reacts To Hailey Davidson Gunning For The LPGA

OutKick's Hayley Caronia recently sat down with trans athlete Nicole Powers, and Powers — who has competed as a skier, tennis player, and — in this case, most importantly — as a golfer, gave her take on transgender golfer Hailey Davidson's bid to earn a spot on the LPGA Tour.

Powers talked about how during some competitions she would purposely let off the gas to not draw any attention.

"I didn't want to raise any flags," Powers said. "So if I'm standing on the tee box with three other women I'm not going to just bomb a drive out on the fairway 310, 315 yards, even though I knew I could. Despite my lifelong transition or transition for 10-plus years, I knew that I could do that, but instead, I would maybe club down; lay off a little bit on my game, because I didn't want to raise those flags."

Powers explained that professional women's golfers play lengthy courses, but that they tend to be 500 or 600 yards shorter than those played by professional men's players. She explained that she knew she would have a sense of guilt if she took awards or accolades away from female players.

"In the back of my head this entire couple years I was playing in professional tournaments, I knew I wouldn't feel right if I did take awards [from women]," Powers said.

She then said that feeling comfortable with oneself while still competing fairly are not mutually exclusive things.

"You have to be comfortable in yourself to understand that you can belong and be yourself and play fairly."

Caronia asked Powers about Hailey Davidson, the trans golfer who has competed for spots on the LPGA tour despite being a biological male, and what governing bodies need to do to protect women's sports.

Powers pointed out the absurdity of states that allow people to simply change their birth certificates to whatever sex or gender they may want.

"I don't know what the governing bodies need to do, but they need to listen to woman athletes — y'know, women; adult human females — they need to listen to those athletes, listen to their pain points and understand that there has to be a change. There has to be a clear line in the sand.

"And it's not from a position of discrimination at all," Powers continued. "It's just from a posting of fairness, from the original reason why we (have) women's sports and men's sports."