Trans golfer won a meaningful medal in her first 18 holes after transition

On the surface  it was like any other golf tournament, a golfer in contention for the win needing the big hole to stay in the hunt.

For Benni Wescott, a golf nut who lives for the game, the DC World Pride 2025 Capital Cup Sports Festival was like being on the lead pairing on a PGA or LPGA Tour Sunday. The LPGA and USGA were both partners for the World Pride Capital Cup Golf Championship.

The trans woman was making a run and was in her element.

“There was only one scorecard per group,” she recalled. “I don’t know necessarily where I stand, but I know I’m close enough that I have to do something here. Like, I have to pull off a shot and make a birdie.”

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Yet this tournament was special and personal for her as a trans woman in her first tournament since transitioning.

This was 18 holes signifying a greater journey.

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Love of golf came early for Benni Wescott

Wescott, 28, grew up in New Hampshire. She started playing golf at age 6 and fell in love with the sport. 

She decided the game was her calling. She wasn’t only a collegiate golfer — at Methodist University in North Carolina — she got a degree in golf management. The degree led to a job in television as a production assistant at Golf Channel. 

Where else would a self described “golf nut” rather be? She was on hand for some the game’s biggest events and was part of the team for golf as a Summer Olympic event at Tokyo in 2021.

“I helped one of the cameramen. We followed Collin Morikawa and Nelly Korda out in Tokyo. The weather pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was wild,” she remembered. “That was a crazy experience to be a part of an Olympics…. It was an insane process to get there, but a wild adventure that I’ll never forget.”

As she was growing into her role at Golf Channel, she was also struggling with internal questions about her gender identity. In some ways, she had done so since she first fell in love with golf.

In 2022, the thoughts and feelings collided while visiting her parents. 

“I was having suicidal thoughts, and I was hurting myself,” she said  “I went to a mental health facility for a couple days up here in New Hampshire, and then I was taken down to Connecticut for 12 days. That is where I disclosed for the first time to the doctors, you know, about my gender identity.”

The trans woman came out to her parents soon after. She also left the job she had cherished amid worries that the conservative environment of golf and her workplace wouldn’t mesh with who she was.

“I wasn’t thinking about golf at the time when I came out. It was just for survival and my safety.”

Yet as she moved forward in her transition, the love for game was still there. As she started her medical transition in 2023, she got back to playing, relearning the game with a body that was changing.

When she got an invitation to play in the Capital Cup, her intensity grew. 

“I joined a golf course, so I like to try to get out on the golf course as much as I can after work,” she said. “I was playing [hard], and I was like, okay, I really want to prepare for this event and I really want to do well.”

Crunch time for Benni Wescott at the World Pride Capital Cup

She made the 8-hour drive from New Hampshire to Washington, D.C., and found herself at East Potomac Golf Links, finding support she didn’t think would be there in the game.

“To know that there are other people like me who love golf was something that really ran through my mind often,” Wescott stated. “I just kind of kept looking around at the other groups on the course, ‘I’m so happy to be here to play in this.’”

Wescott said her round was one of the best in her life. She was in contention throughout, leading to a par-4 with two holes left and hanging onto the top 5.

Par wouldn’t do to move up in standings. Her second shot needed to land on the green, and it did.

“I stuck it from 210 yards with a 5-wood. I was like, ‘Oh my god, that was fun,'” she said. “It was probably one of the most proud moments I’ve had since coming out.

“To play in that event meant a ton and to compete in it meant a ton. The feeling of love for golf exploded in my heart. I’ve done this for my whole life, and I still can’t get enough of it, even in instances like this where I’m nervous and there’s something on the line.”

She ended the day at 2-over 74 and finished third overall, winning the women’s low-gross title. She won a medal with a lanyard adorned in the colors of Pride, and she gained a realization that there was a place for her in golf.

Renewed purpose and a new direction

As the trans woman worked her way back to the game, Wescott reached out to other trans golfers like herself. One she pointed out was Hailey Davidson, who fought to earn an LPGA tour card and continues to speak out from trans inclusion in the sport.

“She is very hard core. So brave, steadfast, and strong in herself,” she said. “That’s what I draw on the most from her. Her fortitude and bravery in being a trans woman out on the golf course.”

In addition to getting back in the game, Wescott started Golf Bug Studio in 2023, a creative multimedia venture centered around her passion for golf. She said she is looking to create even more content and work on building on her Capital Cup performance to earn a bid in the PGA Creator Classic tournament series. The mini-tour pits golf content creators to show their skills on the links.

She sees competition and creation as tools towards her greater goal.

Wescott wants to show other trans women like her that they can also tee off in golf and dream big.

“I will get to the place where I feel comfortable. Sharing on platforms and being in the golf space, because I know I have support and love there. And, and I would love to win. I think that would really inspire a ton of people, and it would have a pretty positive impact.”

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