NXXT Golf Tour CEO Stuart McKinnon responded to backlash surrounding his choice to ban transgender athletes from the Girls’s professional tour, arguing the transfer finally got here down to making sure feminine athletes a proper to “competitive fairness” on the course.
The choice to ban organic males from competing within the ladies’s league sparked outrage from transgender golfer Hailey Davidson, who gained the NXXT Women’s Classic again in January. McKinnon addressed the controversial choice and the way it was made during “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“We didn’t make this decision lightly. We knew it was a polarizing topic and would evoke a lot of emotions from people out there,” McKinnon advised co-host Will Cain on Sunday. “We took a lot of time in educating ourselves, spoke to many stakeholders in the golfing community and the sporting community at large from coaches and players and doctors and scientists, and educated ourselves.”
“It really came down to one principle, and that was about competitive fairness,” he continued. “We felt that the biological male had a physiological advantage against the woman on the tour, and we made the decision to change.”
Davidson sounded off on the ban on Instagram, writing, “You know what really bugs me is that people think I win just by showing up. This is such a slap in the face to ALL female athletes being told that any male can transition and beat them regardless of the life of hard work those women put in… You think your (sic) attacking me but your actually attacking and putting doen [sic] ALL other female athletes.”
Hailey Davidson competes within the NXXT Girls’s Championship golf match at Rio Pinar, in Orlando, Florida, Wednesday, January 24, 2024. Davidson is a transgender golfer going through criticism from those that declare she is destroying golf. (Fox Information Digital)
McKinnon mentioned the choice, which was made on Worldwide Girls’s Day on Friday, was made after players were consulted on the matter. He mentioned the “overwhelming feedback” was that the feminine athletes most well-liked to compete in opposition to organic ladies solely.
“I’m a father of five daughters,” McKinnon mentioned. “Growing up in the sports, there was categories… and some is based on sex, and so this is really about protecting that category. In addition, we listened to the players on the tour. We conducted an anonymous player pool and overwhelming feedback came back that they wanted us to change our gender policy guidelines.”
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“When Hailey Davidson did win, what it did was it brought out more feedback from our players on tour, telling us that they would not play anymore and telling us that other players that they knew of weren’t playing on the tour because of our gender policy guidelines,” he continued.
After large backlash, the ladies’s tour launched an announcement to make clear its choice.
LPGA tee markers are seen in the course of the closing spherical of the LPGA Qualifying Event at LPGA Worldwide on December 4, 2005, in Daytona Seashore, Florida. (Scott Halleran/Getty Photographs)
“The NXXT Women’s Pro Tour’s policies, especially concerning gender, have been formulated in alignment with those of the LPGA and USGA. This approach is crucial in maintaining the integrity of our partnership with the LPGA and ensuring a fair and consistent competitive environment. When Hailey Davidson joined the tour, she complied with these policies by providing necessary documentation, including validation from the LPGA and USGA, which also facilitated her participation in the 2022 Q-School,” the assertion mentioned.
Regardless of the fallout, McKinnon argued the choice was something however “knee-jerk” and primarily based on his personal schooling on the topic.
“I can guarantee this was not a knee-jerk reaction to any outside forces,” McKinnon mentioned. “I just bought this tour a year ago, and Davidson provided us with a letter of eligibility from the LPGA and from the USGA, and it took some time to educate myself… on the process that they followed and took some time for myself to learn about this.”
Fox Information’ Paulina Dedaj and Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
