Women's Professional Golf Tour Bans Transgender Golfer Hailey Davidson With Changes To Gender Policy
In a win for female athletes, NXXT Golf, a women's professional tour, has announced that all competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate. This means that transgender golfer Hailey Davidson, a three-time winner on the tour, is no longer eligible to play.
NXXT Golf announced the changes to its gender policy on March 8, which happened to be International Women's Day. The announcement stated, "This decision underscores the organization’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of women's professional golf and ensuring fair competition."
NXXT CEO Stuart McKinnon shared that the policy change was made to uphold integrity in women's sports.
"As we navigate through the evolving landscape of sports, it is crucial to uphold the competitive integrity that is the cornerstone of women’s sports," McKinnon explained. "Our revised policy is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to celebrating and protecting the achievements and opportunities of female athletes. Protected categories are a fundamental aspect of sports at all levels, and it is essential for our Tour to uphold these categories for biological females, ensuring a level playing field."
While McKinnon's comments address women's sports as a whole, NXXT's policy change is a reaction to Davidson making headlines earlier this year following their win at the Women's Classic in January. Davidson, who played college golf on multiple men's teams, currently ranks second in the tour's season-long standings having made nine starts this season.
Davidson reacted to the news on Friday afternoon on Instagram, showing frustration that they had now been told they couldn't play in future events having already been approved at an earlier date.
Instagram/Haileydgolf
Davidson's victory earlier this year garnered so much national attention not only because they were a biological male competing against biological females, but for what was at stake during this NXXT season.
The NXXT has a new partnership this season with the Epson Tour, which is the feeder tour to the LPGA Tour. The Top 5 earners on the NXXT points list will earn two exemptions into future Epson Tour tournaments. Davidson appeared to be primed to snag one of those Top 5 spots, but as later reported by Golfweek's Beth Ann Nichols, the fine print of the partnership states that the NXXT must have at least 10 events with an average field size of 40 players, which has fallen well short of this season.
Nevertheless, this doesn't take away from the fact that NXXT's decision is a giant win for common sense, and not just for female athletes, but for women in general.
Davidson even admitted on the record that men have physical advantages over women, but explained that their situation was different given that they underwent reassignment surgery years ago, so their physical advantages had essentially disappeared. Therefore, they belonged on the women's tour.
OutKick/MattReigle
Shortly after Davidson's win in January, NXXT announced that it would be polling its female competitors on the tour's gender policy while also asking Davidson to undergo additional testosterone testing. While the results of that poll have not been shared, it's fair to assume that the results did not go in Davidson's favor.
NXXT is now the second women's mini-tour in the United States to ban transgender athletes from competing with the Arizona-based Cactus Tour doing the same in February.