Hailey Davidson has filed a lawsuit against the LPGA and USGA, challenging the decisions that kept her out of women’s events. The Florida-based golfer claimed that she was not allowed to play in a Women’s U.S. Open qualifier at Hackensack Golf Club in New Jersey last May. In the filing, she has cited violations of New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws.
Davidson also alleges that both governing bodies worked together for years in a way that limited her chances to compete.
“Both organizations exerted an incredible amount of control over Hailey’s ability to play the game she loved and her personal medical information in an effort to unlawfully control her participation in women’s golf,” the lawsuit stated.
“The USGA and LPGA preyed on Hailey’s love of the game and desire to play to get the precise medical information that would allow them to exclude her from the sport.
“The USGA and LPGA acted as one when it came to ensuring that Hailey Davidson would be banned from women’s golf.”
The lawsuit also points to a series of interactions going back to 2016, when Davidson first started asking about eligibility rules. Her attorney, Susan Cirilli, said both organizations were aware of how their policies would affect her.
“The LPGA and the USGA knew exactly the policy that needed to be drafted in order to completely ban Hailey from golf events which includes events in jurisdictions where gender identity is a protected status.”
Hailey Davidson has been part of the wider discussion on transgender inclusion in golf for a few years. In 2021, she became the first trans woman to win a professional event and later entered LPGA qualifying school in 2021 and 2022.
What has happened around Hailey Davidson in the past year
This is not the first time Hailey Davidson has found herself in this situation. She won on the NXXT Tour early in 2024, but that result was followed by a rule change that barred transgender women from competing on that tour. Davidson had pushed back on the move at the time, saying it came after her results started drawing attention.
“When I won the first time, people lost their minds and then it went away for about a year,” she said in an interview with Sky News in 2024. “Again, it happened about a year later so this is about the third or fourth time something like this has happened.
“No one really cares when I’m not playing well, but as soon as you play well, the whole world ends and it’s ‘I’m destroying women’s golf now’… It’s a selective hatred, I would say.”
Even after that, Davidson still had chances to play. She later got into the U.S. Women’s Open field as an alternate. Over the past year, she has worked on her game and is now set to play in the Grass League Par 3 event next month, where she will team up with PGA professional and golf videographer Benni George.