I Love A Success Story - Hailey Davidson

Begins quest to become first transgender woman to earn LPGA card at Q-School

By - Beth Ann Nichols
August 19, 2021 

The par-4 fifth at the The Dye Preserve in Jupiter, Florida, used to be a juicy risk/reward hole for Hailey Davidson at about 290 yards with a cut driver. Now Davidson jokes that she could get the luckiest bounce off a concrete path and still not reach the green. Six years into her gender transition, Davidson reckons she’s now shorter off the tee than the Korda sisters.

“Lost another half a club of yardage,” bemoaned Davidson earlier this month. “I thought I was done losing yardage.”

This week Davidson, 28, becomes the second transgender woman to tee it up in the first stage of LPGA Q-School. The first, Bobbi Lancaster, was a 63-year-old physician from Arizona who earned Symetra Tour status in 2013, but ultimately spent her time traveling the country as a human rights advocate.

Now Davidson, who earned a scholarship to play on the men’s team at Wilmington University, an NCAA Division II school in Delaware, before transferring to the men’s team at Christopher Newport, an NCAA Division III school in Virginia, begins her journey toward trying to become the first transgender player to earn status on the LPGA.

Davidson began undergoing hormone treatments on Sept. 24, 2015, a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm, and in January, underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure that’s required under the LPGA’s Gender Policy.

On May 13, Davidson won her first professional title on the NWGA tour (National Women’s Golf Association), beating several LPGA players in the process including Paula Creamer and Perrine Delacour. She is believed to be the first trans woman to win a professional tournament in the U.S. and now owns three titles.

On June 8, Davidson received confirmation from the LPGA that she was eligible to compete in tour qualifying school, after having met the tour’s criteria of at least one year of hormonal therapy and gender reassignment surgery. The 72-hole event, held at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, is being staged Aug. 19-22 and a minimum of 95 players and ties will advance to Stage II out of a field of 339.

Davidson knows that any kind of success she might enjoy on the LPGA will be laced with controversy. Her quest comes at a time when anti-transgender legislation is being passed and debated across the United States.

I guess that’s what frustrates me the most. If I play bad, then people will feel justified – ‘Oh well, she played bad and wasn’t good enough.’ – If I do anything good, it won’t be because of the fact that I put my whole life into this … it would be because I’m trans.

See Hailey's Blog "Becoming Hailey" and read more here.