Amy Olson, a golfer who said goodbye to golf in April of this year and decided to retire, decided to talk about the LPGA Tour's transgender policy in a recent interview. This Tour decided to change the rules in 2010, allowing people who identify as trans to perform on the LPGA. The goal of the rule change is to allow fair competition for all members.
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A man who identifies as a woman has the right to perform on the women's Tour provided that he has undergone at least one year of hormone therapy and a gonadectomy, a testes removal procedure. This topic attracts controversies and reactions in all sports, not only golf. Fans have different opinions, but it seems that the majority are against such things.
Hailey Davidson, transgender pro, who plays on the LPGA, is a well-known example in the world of golf. Her presence at the LPGA didn't really get positive reactions, but Hailey is still part of this story.
Olson has no qualms about this issue, believing that if a person is born female, then they have the right to compete. The 32-year-old doesn't accept any other modifications. Although she believes that LPGA officials know what she's talking about, she is aware of how challenging it is to change such rules. The former golfer is optimistic that things will change in December.
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Amy Olson on theLPGA Tour
Amy Olsonstresses that the LPGA Tour was started by a group of women known as the "13 Founders." Those women, she says, carried all their equipment in vehicles, traveled from golf course to golf course, held clinics, and did everything they could to attract public interest and build this tournament from the ground up. The LPGA Tour has greatly improved from year to year and has become a distinctive Tour that attracts more and more attention. Although this Tour was not so popular in the past, women's golf has been showing great growth for years.
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The 32-year-old emphasizes that women created the LPGA Tour and that it was all done in favor of women. Olson thinks it's wrong for what these women have built to be taken over by men who identify as women, who have a clear competitive advantage. The popular golfer thinks that such things are not fair.
As already said, this is a general problem in many sports, and most sports change their policy to show their openness to something different. Such things have always attracted attention and produced different opinions.
Olson and 275 other women believe that the opportunities created by the founders of the LPGA Tour should be protected, and they argue that it is necessary to say no to current changes in order to preserve the rights and opportunities that women have won. The question is how powerful individual golfers are to change these things, given that this is a very complicated issue and a sensitive topic.
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The LPGA explained that they're currently conducting a major review of their gender policy. They plan to complete this work by the end of the year and publish any news for the 2025 season, in accordance with their standard practice of updating rules and policies annually.
The 32-year-old golfer points out that some of the organizations can be an example of how to solve this problem. The transition after puberty is not acceptable for many, and regardless of hormone therapy, organizations don't allow such to be performed. She considers it an important step, but at the same time, she is afraid, considering that such things could encourage some of the children to start the transition as early as possible.
Her opinion is that such people should probably play on men's tours, or create a transgender league, where they could play together. Olson stresses that is also a good solution.
