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Professional golfer Olivia Schmidt has joined the hundreds of female players to call on the LPGA to change its gender policy rules after recently competing against transgender golfer Hailey Davidson in Qualifying School.

Davidson failed to advance out of the second stage of LPGA Q-School in October after finishing 95th out of the 190 players. While they failed to earn an LPGA card, the fact that Davidson was able to tee it up among biological females is the starting point issue.

Three days before the opening round of the pre-qualifying stage of Q-School, over 275 female golfers sent a letter to the LPGA, United States Golf Association (USGA), and the International Golf Federation (IGF) voicing their concerns over a biological male competing in women’s golf.

The LPGA ignored those letters, stuck to its current gender policy, and let Davidson compete and advance in pre-qualifying which took an opportunity away from a biological female in the tournament field.

275 Female Golfers Pen Letter With Concerns Over Trans Golfer Hailey Davidson

Hailey Davidson failed to advance through the second stage of LPGA Q-School. (OutKick/MattReigle)

Both the LPGA and USGA have adopted gender policies that deem biological male competitors eligible to compete against biological females if they have undergone gender reassignment surgery and met hormonal therapy requirements. Davidson meets eligibility requirements after reportedly undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2021.

The LPGA’s director of public relations told OutKick in May that a review of the gender policy was already underway, and hundreds of female players are hoping to see significant changes made. 

Among that group is Schmidt, who like Davidson failed to make it out of the second-stage of Q-School.

“We need the LPGA to make a change,” Schmidt said in an Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) video titled ‘Time: Keep Women’s Golf Female.’ “The bottom line is we can fight this all we want, but the true change comes from the LPGA. They are the only ones with the power to stop it. It’s up to them to protect us.”

“I think that when you have a big organization that only protects one person compared to 400 or so others, that says a lot about who they are and how they handle themselves. They’re protecting the few, not the many. I’m just praying that [the policy] gets changed, and I’m praying that we can find a way to kind of find some common ground in that and hopefully for the next generation of golfers.”

In March, NXXT Golf, a smaller women’s professional tour Davidson was competing and winning on, announced that all competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate. The LPGA and other governing bodies in golf are taking their time in coming to a similar, common-sense–driven conclusion.