The United States Golf Association (USGA) has introduced a new Competitive Fairness Gender Policy, set to take effect for the 2025 championship season. The policy, which ensures the USGA’s longstanding commitment to welcoming all gender identities and gender expressions while maintaining equity in competition, reflects several changes related to transgender athletes.
The new policy ensures competitive opportunities are provided for athletes playing in USGA women’s competitions without allowing an unfair advantage for athletes who have received the sports performance benefits of male puberty, meaning athletes must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned to female prior to going through male puberty in order to compete. Current scientific and medical research shows that sports performance differences exist between biological sexes and such differences begin to occur during the onset of puberty.