“How can they say that rule was not changed specifically directed at me if you have a rule that allows me to play and you come back and you change it?”

Katie Thomas of the New York Times reports that a 57-year-old gender-reassigned retired police officer and women’s world long-drive champ is ineligible after an LPGA rule change. And she's suing.

“It’s an issue of access and opportunity,” Lawless said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’ve been shut out because of prejudice.”

She is also suing Long Drivers of America, two of its corporate sponsors — Dick’s Sporting Goods and Re/Max — and CVS, the sponsor of the L.P.G.A. Challenge, which begins Thursday in Danville, Calif.

A lawyer for Long Drivers of America and a spokesman for the L.P.G.A. declined to comment on the 13-page lawsuit because they said they had not yet seen it. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in San Francisco by her lawyer, Christopher B. Dolan, seeks an unspecified amount in damages and a permanent injunction preventing the tour from holding tournaments or qualifying events in California as long as it continues to exclude transgender people.

Lawless is not the first professional female golfer to be transgender. Mianne Bagger, a Danish athlete, competed in the Women’s Australian Open in 2004 and has since toured professionally in Europe and Australia.

The LPGA needs to think big picture on this one. They are explicitly violating Lawless's rights and more importantly to the betterment of society, make it very difficult for the Golf Channel to ever give us Big Break Transgender From Indian Wells.