WPGA Tour of Australasia bans golfers who hadn’t transitioned from male to female before puberty

Transgender golfer Breanna Gill won her first professional golf tournament last year. But a fresh ruling means it will likely also be her last.

Breanna Gill had always imagined what it would be like to sink a putt to win her first professional tournament, and more specifically, what the immediate reaction would be.

Would her fellow peers rush the green and spray her with water or champagne or whatever else was waiting? Would there just be muted applause? Or would they leave her standing there altogether?

As it happens, about 10 of them mobbed her and drenched her in whatever fluid they had available.

To her, it was acceptance.

“I always thought in my head if I ever got the opportunity to actually win a golf tournament and the girls happen to come running out on the green, I was going to stand there and take it,” Gill said after winning the Australian Women’s Classic in a play-off last year, her first major win after being a member of the WPGA Tour of Australia Tour for more than eight years.

Breanna Gill with her trophy at the Australian Women's Classic. Picture: Australian Golf Media

“I wasn’t going to run away. If you get yourself in that position, you just take it. It was so special.”

But what followed was an immediate and vitriolic online backlash, which included death threats to the transgender golfer. Australian officials scrambled to delete social media posts celebrating her win. They had to restrict comments on others.

The win vaulted Gill’s career ranking to inside the world’s top 400. But the fallout was so severe she took a significant break later in the year (she returned to play further events in 2024).

Yet in the days before Christmas, the WPGA Tour of Australasia effectively put an end to Gill’s chances of ever holing a winning putt on the professional circuit again after changing its membership policy to ban golfers who hadn’t transitioned from male to female before puberty.

It will come into effect on January 1.

CHIP-IN EAGLE ON 14!
Breanna Gill goes from one behind to one in front.#[e-mail]/UppN1vQqGg

— WPGA Tour of Australasia (@WPGATour) April 2, 2023

The decision was divisive, but also predictable.

The LPGA Tour in the United States, the US Golf Association and the R&A had earlier this month taken the lead in instituting the change, as global sports – particularly those in the Olympic movement – grapple with the delicate issue of inclusion and fairness of competition.

Yet the decision for golf’s powerbrokers would seem, on face value, to have little immediate consequence for the larger worldwide tours.

Scottish-born Hailey Davidson won a mini tour event in Florida earlier this year, but she’s hardly banging down the door to challenge Nelly Korda or Lydia Ko atop the world rankings.

But in Australia, Gill had been competing – and won – at the country’s elite level, while juggling regular employment away from golf.

WPGA Tour of Australasia chief executive Karen Lunn phoned Gill before Christmas to relay the board’s decision, which came after a lengthy discussion.

Gill had met the WPGA Tour of Australasia’s previous membership policy, namely waiting at least two years after a sexual reassignment surgery to enter an event, and undergoing hormone therapy treatment for a year to negate any gender advantage. In other words, the policy ensured she had reduced testosterone levels.

The WPGA Tour of Australasia has made the call to ban Gill. Picture: Getty Images

Her status was then verified by an independent panel of specialists, which advised the WPGA, and a separate membership category allowed her to compete on the Australasian tour.

Even after all that, the door now appears to be locked and key thrown away.

To those that have seen her play regularly, there’s no distinct advantage in her driving length off the tee. In her play-off win over Danni Vasquez at the Australian Women’s Classic, on the final hole she was significantly shorter than her rival with the driver.

Even as recent as a fortnight ago, Gill was finishing tied-19th in a NSW Open qualifying event at Orange. She’s 15th on the 2024 WPGA Tour of Australasia order of merit after playing a regular suite of tournaments in recent months.

In a statement, the WPGA Tour of Australasia said: “It is important to note, the change in eligibility requirements is only applicable to WPGA Tour of Australasia sanctioned events and relate to professional golf tournaments held under the WPGA Tour regulations.

“The Board of the WPGA Tour of Australasia wishes to express their collective belief that golf is an inclusive sport that is striving to be even more so, and remains supportive of an inclusive environment and culture where all women are welcome to play our sport.”

Davidson has been more vocal in her disgust at the worldwide decision.

In a post to Instagram after the transgender policy amendments overseas, Davidson said she must “dig myself out of a mental hole every morning the last few months just to try and get going” and had “the greatest achievement I’ve earned in my life taken away from me”.

“Can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” she wrote.

Originally published as WPGA Tour of Australasia bans golfers who hadn’t transitioned from male to female before puberty