Trading one set of balls for another
By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal
I wrote a column a few weeks back that mentioned the fact that in today’s America, women are living approximately five years longer, on average, than men.
That being said, I mentioned that I might be willing to go the transgender route if it didn’t include surgery. Just the hormone treatments. Dump the testosterone, fill me up with estrogen, grow some man boobs, and if that would give me an extra five years above ground, I might be willing to give it a go. Change my name from Gregg to Gregorina, put on some lipstick, and call it a day.
Now comes news that it might even prove to be a money maker on the women’s golf tour, the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association). Too bad my joints are past their prime. Maybe they have a league for senior women with arthritis. Might make a go of that.
In today’s Bizarro World, now comes news that a transgender guy formerly named James Scott Davidson is on the very cusp of qualifying to play on the LPGA Tour under her new name, Hailey Davidson.
If you put aside the LPGA story for a moment, Davidson is someone to be admired on a personal level. Born with a club foot, the native Scot who moved to the U.S. at the age of four underwent 30 procedures while growing up, had to wear casts as a toddler, and still turned out to be a very good golfer.
Not good enough to make the cut on the men’s PGA Tour, but apparently, good enough to play on the LPGA, although that’s yet to be determined.
While still a guy in college, with everything still intact, Davidson was only good enough to play at the NCAA Division II level. Almost every male golfer on the PGA Tour was a Division I stud in college. Division II meant you’d probably run a pro shop and give lessons for a living if you decided to stick with the game.
A few of the really great players like Rory McIlroy skip college golf altogether. They’re that good by the age of 10.
Hailey Davidson has a few more tournaments to win this year before she qualifies to play on the LPGA, but how fair is it to the women who were born, well, women?
In Hailey’s case, she has said she got the full-dose trans treatment, which includes surgical removal of the male genitalia and reconstruction of female genitalia.
Most people have no problem with that. It’s her body. If she feels, like Bruce Jenner did, that she is a female born into a man’s body, what right does anyone have to say she can’t follow her life’s dream of becoming a woman?
I don’t.
The problem is, despite the surgical treatment, despite the hormone treatment, she still has an advantage if she makes it to the LPGA having been born with the musculoskeletal design of a man. Which is why you don’t see Barbie playing in the NFL. Don’t care how big she is, how strong she is, she can’t beat a man, trying out for a spot as a linebacker. Even a place kicker for that matter. Same with the MLB. Same with men’s professional tennis.
Few professional female athletes, in any sport, will say that Hailey Davidson is wrong because they’re scared of the criticism they’ll get.
The tennis great Martina Navratilova has said it’s wrong for a trans man to compete against women, but Jenner is down with it.
Oh, well, what do I care? It’s a crazy world, and that isn’t expected to change any time soon.