Ladies golfing champ used to be a guy

Carolynn · Post by **Carolynn** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:58 pm

Ladies tees? Long-drive champ used to be manby James Achenbach, Golfweek.com

MESQUITE, Nev. - It has been a bizarre year in golf, highlighted by a player with a broken leg winning the U.S. Open. Hard to believe, but it was the only major championship of the year captured by an American.
At the recent RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship here at Mesquite Regional Park, the year grew even stranger.

The new women's world champion in the event is a 55-year-old bartender who used to be a man.
Although golf is a sport largely without controversy, the reign of long-drive queen Lana Lawless, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., is expected to be neither tranquil nor uneventful.

Women's long-drive champion Lana Lawless used to be a SWAT officer. She also used to be a man. (Courtesy of Banggolf / Special to FOXSports.com)
For starters, there is her startling honesty. "This is who I am. This is my life," she said firmly. "That other person, that 245-pound SWAT cop I used to be, he's gone. He's not coming back."
Lawless mostly was a curiosity until the night of Oct. 22, when she upset the competitor widely acclaimed as the longest hitter in women's golf — 21-year-old Phillis Meti of Auckland, New Zealand.

"I beat her because of the wind," conceded Lawless, whose longest drive into a 40-mph headwind traveled 254 yards — 4 yards longer than Meti's best. "She hits it higher than I do, and that wind just knocked her ball out of the sky. If it had been downwind, she would have hit it 500 yards (Meti bombed a 349-yard drive in a qualifying round)."

The image of a policeman-turned-woman does not sit easily with many participants in a sport driven by power, muscle and speed.
"I am shocked more women are not complaining about this," three-time world champion Sean "The Beast" Fister said. "It's not an apples-to- apples deal. Men and women are different."
Added former women's world champion Lee Brandon: "In 2005, the USGA approved transgender involvement in competition, so I don't see how we can dispute this. However, if a woman has the knees, hands and feet of a man, she has genetic real estate that is more gifted."
Lawless had her supporters, including 2007 men's champ Mike Dobbyn, who observed, "When I watch her, I don't see any advantage. She hits it like an LDA (Long Drivers of America) woman."
The rules governing transgender golf competition are precise and numerous. For Lawless, they included mandatory doctor reports, lab results within normal female limits and onsite testing.
"I am a woman," insisted Lawless, who adopted her new name from classic-movie star Lana Turner but declines to discuss her previous name. "I've lost muscle mass. I don't have big guns (biceps). They give you a drug that stops you from producing testosterone. Your muscles atrophy. In about seven months, I went from 245 pounds to 175 pounds. I've gained back a little bit, but I feel like I don't have any power.

"Sure, I used to be a man. For 18 years, I was a cop for the city of Rialto, one of the most violent cities in Southern California. I worked the gang unit. I had a very tough and mean exterior. People didn't want to mess with me.
"I had a hard exterior, but I was compassionate inside. I always let the gay guys go; they had enough drama in their lives."

According to Lawless, there were "cop friends who said, 'Put 1,000 guys in a line, and you'd have been the last one picked (as a transgender candidate).' I was a very convincing cop."

As a man, Lawless had been married but fathered no children. "I was hiding in the straight world," she said, "but Lana was always in there, and I wanted her to live. I had started to go to L.A. to the clubs, playing dress-up on the weekends, but I wanted to be a normal girl."

Being a "normal girl'' came with a price — despite medical insurance, she has spent $79,000 so far. Another sacrifice was golf, which she figured would never again be part of her life.
For 21 years, the big, burly cop played golf at a private club, got down to a plus-1 handicap and even won the club championship. But, after gender-reassignment surgery in Trinidad, Colo., there was no golf in her life and no old friends, either. "Other than my family, I have no friends from my previous life," she said.

After watching the 2006 ESPN broadcast of the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, she was drawn back into golf. She picked up a stock 45- inch Cobra driver and slammed a 295-yard drive in a regional competition.
Then the proverbial ball started rolling. She began working with instructor Les Taylor. She switched to a longer 48-inch driver with the help of Chris Fu, chief operating officer of Bang Golf, a component seller and long-drive specialty company in El Monte, Calif.

In 2007, her first year at the world championship, she lost in the semifinals to bodybuilder Sheila Kelliher, the eventual champion.

Returning this year with the nickname "Heartbreaker" sewn into her headcovers, Lawless claimed the world title with a BangStorm driver that had 5.5 degrees of loft. Her longest drive of the week was 335 yards.
Her parents remain her biggest cheerleaders. Her mother introduces her as "my daughter." But Lawless worries about "people who don't want to open their minds. I've had mothers stop and point me out to their children. That's cruel, but I've learned to deal with it."

One thing is certain about the future: She will not hide.

"In Palm Springs," she said, "I'm like celebrity central. Hey, I carry myself well, I'm well-spoken, I'm funny as hell. I fit in with a world that is expanding its acceptance."

It remains to be seen whether the world of long driving will extend its wholehearted acceptance, but she owns a world championship, and nobody can wrestle that away.

After winning the 2008 crown, she smiled graciously but did not brag or boast. She seemed to talk more about Meti, the talented New Zealander who lost in the final, than she did of herself.

As a sensitive women, Lawless knows what it's like to lose. After falling 1 yard short in the 2007 semifinals and being eliminated, she had cried.

Cried herself a river, just like the girl she always wanted to be.

Virginia · Post by **Virginia** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:20 pm

All Right!!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!

Virginia

Merinda · Post by **Merinda** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 4:56 pm

There was a transgender player at a Brisbane golf course that was a hot topic recently , it looks like the issue has been resolved

http://lgbtlawblog.blogspot.com/2008/11 ... -team.html

Kimberly Kael · Post by **Kimberly Kael** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 9:15 pm

For obvious reasons I'm a huge advocate of transgender rights, but this doesn't sit well with me. Competing in a gender-restricted category seems like taking unfair advantage of the good will of society and isn't likely to earn any additional support. She has a clear genetic advantage from having been born male, no matter what gender she identifies with now.

Of course this raises an obvious question since most sports have gender-specific competitions. Where is she supposed to compete? I don't have a great answer, but I do think it's so clearly unfair to the generic female athletes that the graceful thing to do would be to promote gender-neutral competition and records instead.

TashaM · Post by **TashaM** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 11:35 pm

reminds me when there was a complaint about women competing in the mens side of golf. It's such a grey area now a days for gender specific sports.

Carolynn · Post by **Carolynn** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:58 am

Actually Kimberly, by the time a former male has been on hrt for a few years and had surgery, any muscular advantage is lost other than possibly in height. Even the Olympic Committee has recognized that due to hormone induced upper body muscle loss, there is little difference in performance between transwomen and cisgendered women. As was mentioned in the article, she has been defeated handily before by a cisgendered woman who happened to be a body builder, and she also beat everyone else.

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:51 pm

Thanks for posting this, as I like reading about women who transition gracefully from a former macho profession. I'm also troubled by transgendered athletes, and have a hard time with the fairness issues on both sides. Lana's achievements will always have a cloud over them because of her previous gender, and that's hard on her. On the other hand, she's not only got height, but longer arms and wider hands than a majority of women. TG women do lose strength, but they started out with more than 99% of women have. Their muscle loss doesn't necessarily bring them down to parity with women.

Gender-neutral competition? I'm not sure how well that would work, either.

Carolynn · Post by **Carolynn** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:19 pm

Anita, I have been on full blown HRT for three years. I used to pull a 60 lb test bow all the way to the arrow tip. Now I can pull it back about 25% of the way. I used to be able to fill the bucket of a post hole digger with one go, now I get less than half. My muscle endurance is far less, with muscle fatigue hitting me much, much faster everywhere except my legs. I have flintknapped for years, at first as a means to improve my understanding of the technologies of the past, and have had to adjust my technique to account for less upper body strength. I used to carry 60 lb nodules of chert from the pile in the back yard to my chair under the shade tree without stopping or breathing hard, now I need help or need to break it in two pieces to get it there.

In short it is in my direct experience that male bodied people on full blown HRT lose upper body strength rapidly, and it is much closer to, and even exceeded by, natal females. However, YMMV, maybe.

Carolynn