There’s a storm on the horizon for the LPGA, and the very definition of women’s golf could be at stake.
Hailey Davidson, a transgender player who advanced from the LPGA’s pre-qualifying stage to the second level in a quest for tour membership, has prompted the LPGA to review its gender policy, Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols reported, citing a memo sent from commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan to players. The LPGA intends to review its policy by the end of the year and implement any updates in time for the 2025 season, which typically begins in mid-January.
This quandary is nothing new for the LPGA. In 2010, faced with a lawsuit by a transgender woman, the tour eliminated its requirement that players be “female at birth.”
Davidson, a three-time winner in nine starts this year on the NXXT Golf mini-tour, narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open this year. She was banned from further NXXT competition when the tour announced that competitors must be biological females at birth.
Davidson will compete in the 72-hole LPGA Qualifying Stage on October 15-18 in Venice, Florida, with status on the developmental Epson Tour and spots in Final Qualifying on December 5-9 in Mobile, Alabama, at stake, with the ultimate goal being LPGA membership. READ MORE
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As the PGA Tour wrapped up its 2024 season last week in Atlanta, Georgia, commissioner Jay Monahan suggested in a news conference that negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund are progressing despite any breakthrough.
“We’re at the table and actively engaged with the Public Investment Fund,” he said at East Lake Golf Club, site of the 30-man season finale at which a $100 million bonus pool was distributed. “We remain hopeful about that outcome. But at the same time, we’re moving forward at speed and focused on what we can control, because that’s what we owe to our fans.”
As Ron Green Jr. wrote for Global Golf Post, the biggest potential changes for next year with a schedule largely unchanged from 2024 could concern field sizes and possibly reducing the number of players who retain fully exempt status.
But Rory McIlroy, responding to the stalemate, spoke for most followers of the professional game when he stated with exasperation: “It’s gone on long enough.”
Continued McIlroy: “If it doesn’t happen soon, then honestly, I think PIF and the Saudis are going to have to look at alternative options, right? I’d say that’s the next step in all this if something doesn’t get done.” READ MORE
Jordan Spieth said recent surgery on his bothersome left wrist went “smoothly” and that he anticipates being ready for the 2025 season, he announced on social media. Spieth, 31, a three-time major champion and former world No. 1, posted only three top-10 results – none since early April – in 22 starts this year and slipped to No. 44 in the Official World Golf Ranking. READ MORE
After a celebrated renovation of East Lake Golf Club, site of the season-ending Tour Championship, PGA Tour officials resorted to one of the most criticized local rules in golf on the eve of the tournament: in-course out of bounds. A tour official cited “safety concerns” for spectators after Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and others said that driving into the parallel 10th fairway on the 18th hole would make for good strategy. READ MORE
PGA Tour World Feed 2025, which will debut at next year’s Players Championship, will help the tour cater to its non-American fan base with customized coverage and storytelling for international media, the tour announced. READ MORE
Peyton Manning, the former Denver Broncos quarterback, has been enlisted by Cherry Hills officials to bring the PGA Tour back to Colorado after the recently successful BMW Championship, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak reported. The return, in 2035, would coincide with the 75th anniversary of Arnold Palmer’s stirring 1960 U.S. Open comeback victory, according to the report. READ MORE
TV viewership for the final round of the BMW Championship, the PGA Tour’s second of three playoff events, fell 19 percent on NBC compared with the 2023 edition despite a solid lead-in from the AIG Women’s Open, Sports Media Watch reported. READ MORE
Europe’s Ryder Cup program will not change qualification rules to accommodate LIV golfers, specifically Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tyrrell Hatton, team captain Luke Donald told BBC Sport.
Rahm and Hatton, two key members of a European team that has defeated America in two of the past three Ryder Cups, must play at least four DP World Tour events in 2025 to retain eligibility for the matches next September at Bethpage Black in New York. Hatton played at last week’s Betfred British Masters, which starts the qualification period for the European team, but Rahm did not compete.
Rory McIlroy said late last year that Europe “is going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility,” but Donald said it won’t happen and that any LIV player “knows what is required.” READ MORE
Italy’s Francesco Molinari and England’s Justin Rose, both major champions and key members of Europe’s recent Ryder Cup teams, have been named playing captains for the second edition of the Team Cup. The match-play exhibition between the Continent of Europe and Great Britain and Ireland teams will be played January 10-12 at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort’s National Course as a tuneup for the 2025 Ryder Cup. READ MORE
Lexi Thompson was among three captain’s picks to complete the U.S. team for next week’s Solheim Cup, American captain Stacy Lewis announced.
Thompson, 29, who announced earlier this year that she intends to retire from competitive golf after this season, will be competing in her seventh Solheim Cup. She will join Jennifer Kupcho and Sarah Schmelzel in finalizing the 12-woman team that will host Europe’s top female professionals on September 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia.
The news came one day after European captain Suzann Pettersen disclosed her four at-large selections for the match: Georgia Hall, Anna Nordqvist, Emily Kristine Pedersen and Albane Valenzuela. READ MORE and MORE
Despite her victories in recent weeks at the Paris Olympics and the AIG Women’s Open, 27-year-old Lydia Ko still intends to retire before she turns 30, she told Radio New Zealand in her homeland.
“What has happened in the past few weeks doesn’t change my timeline,” said Ko, a 21-time winner on the LPGA who recently qualified for induction into the women’s tour’s hall of fame and jumped to No. 3 in the Rolex World Rankings. “I want to leave the game while I’m still playing well.” READ MORE
The LPGA liked what it saw last week in its debut at TPC Boston, and vice versa. Officials announced that the FM Championship will return in 2025 for a second edition. Dates were not disclosed. The LPGA is expected to release its schedule this fall. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon