Share
Sports

Golf Tour CEO Reveals Transgender Ban Came After Pro Females Were Defeated by Male and Had an 'Overwhelming' Response

Share

The NXXT women’s golf tour listened to its players before announcing last week that only athletes who were born female could compete, tour CEO Stuart McKinnon said Sunday.

“We listened to the players on the tour. We conducted an anonymous player pool and overwhelming feedback came back that they wanted us to change our gender policy guidelines,” McKinnon said on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” according to Fox News.

The Friday ruling came about two months after Hailey Davidson, who had been playing golf as a man until 2015, attracted controversy after winning a NXXT golf tour tournament in January as a “woman,” according to the Associated Press.

The NXXT tour can become a ladder to the LPGA because the top five golfers on the NXXT leaderboard when the season ends may be able to compete in the Epson Tour, which is a qualifying tour one step below the LPGA.

The tour had announced on its website that “competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate. This decision underscores the organization’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of women’s professional golf and ensuring fair competition.”

In the release, McKinnon said the new policy was “a reflection of our unwavering commitment to celebrating and protecting the achievements and opportunities of female athletes.”

On Sunday, McKinnon said the decision took time and research.

“We didn’t make this decision lightly. We knew it was a polarizing topic and would evoke a lot of emotions from people out there,” McKinnon said.

“I can guarantee this was not a knee-jerk reaction to any outside forces. I just bought this tour a year ago, and Davidson provided us with a letter of eligibility from the LPGA and from the USGA, and it took some time to educate myself … on the process that they followed and took some time for myself to learn about this.”

Should more sports leagues follow suit?

“When Hailey Davidson did win, what it did was it brought out more feedback from our players on tour, telling us that they would not play anymore and telling us that other players that they knew of weren’t playing on the tour because of our gender policy guidelines,” he said.

McKinnon said since Davidson’s January victory, he and others “spoke to many stakeholders in the golfing community and the sporting community at large from coaches and players and doctors and scientists, and educated ourselves,” he said.

“It really came down to one principle, and that was about competitive fairness,” 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.”

Related:
Caitlin Clark Trying Out a Different Sport with Stellar WNBA Rookie Season in the Rearview

Davidson attacked the decision, announced Friday on International Women’s Day, in an Instagram stories post.

“Effective immediately, I have been removed (banned) from the next 3 NXXT tournaments that I had already signed up for and been approved to play,” he wrote, according to Golf Monthly.

“Do people not understand how good LPGA players are and how far they hit it? As a player, if you are upset at me getting to play with my distance (245 yards) then you will never make it to the LPGA Tour where they are that much better and longer than me,” Davidson wrote.

“You can scream at me, threaten me, throw insults at me and even ban me but I will always get back up and keep fighting till the very end. Hate and bigotry will never win,” he wrote.

“What really bugs me is that people think I win just by showing up. This is such a slap in the face to all female athletes being told that any male can transition and beat them regardless of the life of hard work those women put in. You think you’re attacking me, but you’re actually attacking and putting down all other female athletes,” Davidson wrote.


An Important Message from Our Staff:

 

In just a few months, the world is going to change forever. The 2024 election is the single most important election of our lifetime. 

 

We here at The Western Journal are committed to covering it in a way the establishment media simply will not: We will tell the truth, and they will lie.

 

But Big Tech and the elites don’t want the truth out. That’s why they have cut us off from 90% of advertisers. Imagine if someone cut your monthly income by 90%. That’s what they’ve done to people like us. 

 

As a staff, we are asking you to join us to fight this once-in-a-lifetime fight. Without you not only will The Western Journal fail, but America will fail also. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

 

Will you support The Western Journal today and become a member

 

A Western Journal Membership costs less than one coffee and breakfast sandwich each month, and it gets you access to ALL of our content — news, commentary, and premium articles. You’ll experience a radically reduced number of ads, and most importantly you will be vitally supporting the fight for America’s soul in 2024.

 

This is the time. America will live or die based on what happens this year. Please join us to get the real truth out and to fight the elites, Big Tech, and the people who want America to fail. Together, we really can save the country.

 

Thank you for your support!

 

P.S. Please stand with us!

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , ,
Share
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation