Professional golfer, Olivia Schmidt is one of several female players unhappy at the LPGA Tour's current gender participation policy and is calling on the governing body to revert its rules in order to "protect us."
Speaking to the Independent Women's Forum for a documentary series called 'Tee Time: Keep Women’s Golf Female' - produced by IW Features, the storytelling platform of the IWF - Schmidt detailed her frustration at sharing the course with a player who was previously male before gender-reassignment surgery as she fought to reach the LPGA Tour.
Earlier this year, the Arkansas State University graduate competed against Hailey Davidson at LPGA Tour Q-School but missed out on advancing to the top tier as both Schmidt and Davidson reached round two - consequently earning Epson Tour status.
As a result of her disappointment at competing against a formerly-male player, Schmidt joined several other female pros in backing the IWF's campaign to encourage the LPGA Tour change its rules.
In 2010, the LPGA changed its participation policy to allow trans-identified male golfers to participate in the women’s division - saying it would “assure fair competition for all members and participants.”
According to the policy, men who self-identify as women and have undergone at least one year of hormone therapy and a gonadectomy - a surgical procedure to remove the male testes - are cleared by the LPGA in tournaments and eligible for membership open only to female athletes.
However, the Epson Tour player believes the policy is unfair and even discriminates against golfers who were born a biological female.
Schmidt said: “We need the LPGA to make a change. 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 if you have a big organization that only protects one person compared to 400 or so others, that says a lot about who they are. They're protecting the few, not the many."
Schmidt - who has also made three starts on the Ladies European Tour - signed personalized letters addressed to the leaders of the LPGA Tour, the IGF, and the USGA, along with 274 of her peers before Q-School, which urged the governing bodies to reassess the current guidelines.
And according to the IWF, the LPGA Tour is planning on introducing new guidelines for trans-identifying athletes this month.
Schmidt continued: “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. All I can hope is that I had a part in that and a part in history in this way.
“A lot of time and energy goes into this, a lot of practice, a lot of time away from my family that if I just had a normal desk job, I could go and hang out with them every night or time that I could have meeting people and building a family of my own.
"But I've given a lot of that up. That's probably the biggest sacrifice, just realizing that it's all going to be for something one day."
Schmidt also stated that the women involved in this campaign are not 'anti-trans' and simply want a fair shot at achieving their dreams.
She said: “In reality, we are just pro-women. This movement isn’t about excluding people, but rather including women and keeping women’s golf female.”
In response, the LPGA Tour told Golf Monthly: "We are currently conducting a thorough review of our Gender Policy. We intend to conclude our work by year-end and announce any updates for the 2025 season, following our standard policy of updating regulations and policies annually."
