Transgender girls who’ve gone via male puberty is not going to be allowed to compete in girls’s golf tournaments organised by the R&A from the beginning of 2025.
The R&A, golf’s St Andrews-based governing physique, has up to date its guidelines on gender coverage following an “in depth session” with medical and scientific consultants.
It comes after the Girls Skilled Golf Affiliation (LPGA) and United States Golf Affiliation (USGA) updated their gender policies this month to exclude gamers who’ve gone via male puberty from girls’s occasions.
“The proof reveals that golf is a gender-affected sport wherein male puberty confers a efficiency benefit,” the R&A stated.
The R&A, which governs golf’s guidelines exterior america and Mexico, oversees girls’s championships together with the Girls’s Open.
Chief govt Martin Slumbers stated the R&A had a “responsibility to make sure that in our elite competitions gamers can compete pretty and equally”.
“We now have rigorously reviewed the perfect out there medical and scientific recommendation referring to participation in elite and scratch-level golf competitions by transgender athletes and determined that updating our entry circumstances to protect equity in our feminine skilled and elite beginner championships is the appropriate factor to do,” Slumbers stated.
Governing our bodies from sports activities together with swimming and athletics have already banned transgender girls from competing within the feminine class at elite stage if they’ve gone via male puberty.
