A male-born transgender golfer is one more step closer to winning membership as a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) competitor after winning a woman’s tournament in Florida.
Hailey Davidson, 30, won the NXXT Women’s Classic on Jan. 17 at the Mission Inn Resort and Club, near Orlando, Florida, with a one-over-73 score and finishing the three-round event at a +4, the New York Post reported.
Trans golfer Hailey Davidson wins women’s tournament, increasing chances to LPGA qualifier https://t.co/MoOt0i6eGz pic.twitter.com/9KTlL8Ul1i
— New York Post (@nypost) January 21, 2024
Davidson, a Scottish-born man whose real name is James Scott Davidson, supposedly began hormone treatments in Sept. of 2015, the last year he he competed as a man, to begin the transition to a transgender woman, Golf Week reported.
After undergoing full gender reassignment surgery, Davidson set his sights on becoming a female pro golfer and won his first women’s tournament in May of 2021, five years after beginning the transition. By June of that year, Davidson received confirmation from the LPGA that he was eligible to join the league’s qualifying school and work towards earning his women’s golf membership card.
He claims that after his transition, all the power he had in his swing as a male is now gone as a female. So he claims he no long has a strength advantage.
“I’ve worked the last five years to get every inch of muscle off of me,” Davidson said, “doing everything I could to make sure I would not stick out like a sore thumb.”
However, that claim is hard to square considering that Davidson is now sitting at a total score of 1320 on the NXXT tour’s leaderboard, which is an incredible 150 points ahead of the second place woman on the board.
The controversial golfer has also won more than $10,000 in prize money over the last season. And it seems a cinch that he will be awarded one of the ten exemptions to participate in the Epson Tour.
Davidson also boasts that he is the first transgender woman to ever win a professional golf tournament.
The golfer’s tear through women’s golf is certainly not without controversy.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova blasted Davidson for the campaign to gain a women’s pro golf membership card.
“This really needs to end sooner rather than later. Male bodies, however they might identify, do not belong in women’s sports!” she wrote on X on Jan. 20.
This really needs to end sooner rather than later. Male bodies, however they might identify, do not belong in women’s sports! https://t.co/QzoqhVW5MO
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) January 21, 2024
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