Golf was once a gentlemen’s sport, with golf greats like Bobby Jones playing in a shirt and tie, and often knickers.

Other champions, like Arnold Palmer frequently puffed on a cigarette while playing. Some more recent golf greats like John Daly would smoke an entire pack of cigarettes during a round of golf.

As such, many didn’t view golf as a true sport, instead a game of technique and skill like bowling and billiards, unlike triathletes, tennis players, or professional basketball, hockey, and football players who have the look and moves of elite athletes.

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Modern golfers have added athleticism to their sport, comparable to other elite athletes.

For example, Tiger Woods trains like an NFL safety. “Tiger’s basic routine includes stretching, core training, doing cardio and weight training.” He will stretch “up to 40 minutes before each workout,” followed by “a three-mile speed run or an endurance run up to seven miles.”

“After his run, Woods hits the weights for two to three hours.”  That’s before or after he is practicing his sport of golf.

How strong is he? “Tiger was seen recently bench pressing 315 pounds at a fitness center in Fort Worth, Texas. Tiger weighs around 185 lbs. so he is benching close to double his body weight. He is really strong for his size.”

Golfers are athletes on par with other elite athletes, depending on speed, strength, and power, along with technical skill performing their sport. Given the advantages in these parameters that men hold over women, the two groups rarely compete against each other, other than in a pro-am event or couples golf with cocktails at the local country club.

Yet in today’s modern world where men are believed able to menstruate and become pregnant, it’s no surprise that the transgender movement has coopted golf. Women’s swimming has already been invaded, as I have written about previously. Weightlifting, too. It was only a matter of time until men claiming to be women hit the golf circuit.

As reported by Yahoo Sports,

A Scottish-born transgender golfer has spoken about her dream of earning a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour card after winning a tournament in Florida.

Hailey Davidson, the first male-born golfer to win a professional women’s event three years ago, claimed the top prize at the NXXT Women’s Classic at Howey-in-the-Hills.

Although she claims, there is “a lot of work to be done” before she can join the LPGA Tour, which is “incredibly far off.” if she keeps winning tournaments, her LPGA card may be closer than she thinks, also depending on whether the LPGA “follows the science” and respects female athletes.

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Golfer Davidson began hormone therapy in 2015, underwent gender-reassignment surgery, and claims to have lost 30 yards on his drive as a result of hormone treatment.

What’s the 30 yard drive loss mean?

According to  GolfMagic, PGA tour players hit the driver 289-323 yards compared to LPGA tour players hitting 246-258 yards. This 40- to 70-yard difference is more than the 30 yards Davidson lost on hormonal therapy.

How far do the longest hitters drive the ball?

According to Golfweek,

Maria Fassi topped the LPGA’s driving distance category last year with an average of nearly 280 yards. The year prior, Anne van Dam clocked in at 291 yards, a full six yards ahead of her nearest competitor.

On the men’s side, Rory McIlroy is the longest hitter averaging 326 yard drives, 60 yards longer than the longest woman driver.

Which is why women play a shorter course than men. The course length for the 2023 Men’s U.S. Open was 7,423 yards compared to the women’s course at 6,954 yards, about 500 yards or a par 5 hole shorter.

This is why there are separate men’s and women’s tees on all golf courses, varying from 10 to 40 yards, adding at least 500 yards for men over 18 holes.

Although this is common sense and the reason men and women have separate athletic competitions, including golf, these days we are implored to “follow the science.” 

Let’s do that.

A paper published recently in BMJ Open Sports and Exercise Medicine confirms the obvious, “Study shows sex could be a better predictor of sports performance than gender identity.”

From the paper’s results, in scientific terms, “Natal-male non-binary athletes outperform natal-female non-binary athletes at a confidence level of p=0.1%.”

In other words, as athletes, men outperform women, regardless of how they “identify.” Most would call this “settled science”.

The reason is simple. according to the International Olympic Committee, “A number of scientific papers have recently shown people who have undergone male puberty retain significant advantages in power and strength even after taking medication to suppress their testosterone levels.”

Puberty is when boys differentiate from girls through muscle and bone mass, strength, and power. Once the athletic engine is built, adult testosterone levels matter little. This means that a trans female athlete keeping his testosterone level below a certain number isn’t relevant since he went through male puberty years earlier.

Hailey Davidson is 30 years old, and was 21 when he began hormone therapy, well past the age of puberty. The male golfer was already built with minimal change after hormone therapy or gender surgery.

What do other golfers or athlete parents say about this?

Judy Murray is the leading Scottish tennis coach and mother of former world No 1 tennis star Andy Murray, said on X, “No. Not fair at all.  Protect women’s sport. Listen to the facts, the scientists and the medics. This is wrong.”

Swimmer Riley Gaines was blunter about Davidson’s golf victory, “A man stands atop the podium while the women smile and applaud. The ultimate patriarchy that the ‘feminists’ fully embrace.”

Then there was outspoken long-driving golfer John Daly not mincing words, “I would’ve won 100 tournaments if I threw on a skirt and called myself a tranny. That dude is as feminine as a Ford F-150.”

Why aren’t women golfer speaking up? Fear of losing sponsors, most of which are woke corporations pushing a DEI or ESG agenda. This is a legitimate concern for a lesser-known LPGA players trying to scrape out a living while on tour. Go along to get along.

But if en masse the entire women’s tour refused to play against a transgender golfer, the tournament would be over before it began. Similarly, the other seven women swimmers should remain on the starting blocks if competing against a trans swimmer like Lia Thomas.

Feminist and “women’s rights” groups are conspicuously silent, throwing women athletes under the bus to further this destructive woke agenda.

Where is the “equity” in all of this? The years of training, hard work, sacrifice, on the part of girls and their parents, helping young women reach the pinnacle of their sports, only to have to take a back seat to a male athlete “identifying” as a female.

It’s a travesty and huge setback for women’s rights and if it continues will destroy women’s sports. Where is the outcry?

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer.

Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.