Women’s Pro Golf Tour Rules Players ‘Must Be a Biological Female to Participate’

In the fight over biological men being allowed to compete in women’s sports, several giants in the industry, such as the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), have been hit with immense backlash due to their transgender policies.

Lia Thomas, a male swimmer, created immense controversy when he decided he wanted to identify as a female and compete among the female athletes. During his time swimming for University of Pennsylvania in 2022, Thomas went from ranking 65th in the men’s 500-yard freestyle to first in the women’s. He had an even greater advantage in the 200-yard freestyle, where he ranked 554th on the men’s team but quickly jumped to fifth once he joined the women’s category.

Various experts use Thomas as an example of the inherent advantage biological men have over women, and how it’s unfair to force them to compete against one another due to personal ideologies. While Thomas is a common example, he is only one of many.

For those fighting to keep biological men out of women’s sports, it seems as though there have been several setbacks as men continue to be allowed to compete in several women’s sports including swimming, basketball, volleyball, and much more. However, many striving to protect women’s sports consider a recent decision made by NXXT Golf CEO Stuart McKinnon a major success. McKinnon said in a statement last week, “Effective immediately, competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate.”

This rule change came shortly after Hailey Davidson, a man who identifies as a woman, won first place in the Florida women’s pro golf league tournament in January, beating the woman who came in second by 100 points — a win that also brought Davidson close to qualifying for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). But after this competition, NXXT conducted a poll among their tour players to get opinions on the golf league’s gender policies. “We believe it is vital to consider the perspectives of those directly affected by these policies,” NXXT wrote. And after receiving “overwhelming feedback,” McKinnon chose to not to allow biological males to compete.

He shared with Fox News that they “didn’t make this decision lightly,” but that it “really came down to one principle, and that was about competitive fairness.” He explained they spoke with “coaches and players and doctors and scientists,” as well as “stakeholders” in the golfing and sports community. Ultimately, he said, “We felt that the biological male had a physiological advantage against the woman on the tour, and we made the decision to change.”

Davidson, who played on a men’s golf team before identifying as a woman, expressed his disapproval of the decision. He argued it was “a slap in the face to all female athletes.” Additionally, he claimed that “attacking” him put down “all other female athletes.”

But on behalf of those who believe this was a win, not a “slap in the face,” for all female athletes, Doreen Denny, senior advisor to Concerned Women for America (CWA), commented to The Washington Stand, “NXXT CEO Stuart McKinnon has taken the only true stand for women in golf and deserves a badge of honor for upholding the integrity of the NXXT Women’s Pro Tour.”

She continued, “Until a destructive ideology started consuming our culture, being female was the single, universally understood criteria for participation in women’s sports. CEO McKinnon has reaffirmed that immutable truth by clarifying eligibility for the women’s golf tour. It’s time for others to get off the woke bandwagon and follow his lead.”

Denny explained that “competitive fairness is an essential cornerstone of sport and the reason eligibility in the women’s category is based on being female.” She added that any sport policy that allows “trans-identifying males to participate in women’s sports have been wrong-headed from the start and discriminate exclusively against female athletes.”

She concluded, “We applaud CEO McKinnon for making the only common sense policy decision for the women’s pro tour and call on the LPGA to do the same.”