About men's golfing -- it's a good question, although golf is way less popular with amateur gay male players than basketball, flag football and softball, among others. Some liberal gay men are turned off by the stuffy traditional atmosphere of the sport. I've written about all this in my LGBT sports history series at Outsports.com.

About lesbians in women's pro golf -- they have been inching out, little by little, for decades, ever since Babe Didrickson toured openly with her partner in her later years. Today the out women players don't run into big homophobia in the sport (even though a few straight players do complain bitterly). Palm Springs has even admitted openly than billions of lesbians attend the Dinah every year.

Transgender players are traveling a rockier road. As usual, the U.S. is behind the curve, compared to a few other countries, like England and Denmark, where the way is being opened for them to play. I'm glad you protested. More of us need to do so.

Is Nick Watney gay? Read some speculation on that recently.

But from the prior decade there was one out gay player on the PGA tour as I remember, Frank Lickliter II. And yet I can find nothing about it on the web.

Congratulations on your first "Guest Blogger" article on Bilerico. Two or three more like this and maybe Bil will make you a Contributor. I'm sure it will be long before you reach 25 articles, which I heard someone has reached without being made one.

Great article!

Angela, I've met a couple golfers who've done time on the PGA tour, one of who's mouth got him in some notorious hot water a few years ago. PGA golfers, according to John Feinstein, are by and large very conservative politically; they are independent businessmen, like the Bushist "tax cuts for the wealthy", and many are fundamentalist Christians. My observations bear that out, and it's a pretty tight community; I would also bet that the PGA tries to keep a lid on anything controversial. We all know that many country clubs still have trouble with color, even after Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Lee Trevino. Still, you'd have to believe that at least some would be gay, and one might wonder how many crossdress behind closed doors after a bad round or before leading a final round, as a stress reliever.

Of course, the LPGA has had lesbian rumors flying for years, hasn't it?

Angela, interesting article and that is saying a lot for me as I have never played golf. Just being on the course with others I consider it to be a waste of useful space :)

I do recall a woman I knew who sold her successful company to a competitor and was herself included on the board of the buyer as part of the deal. This involved her moving from Texas to Wisconsin and her experience with her customers was part of her appeal. She left because she was disgusted by the way they would decide something at a board meeting only to change it while "the boys" were out golfing...no, she had not been invited. And no, she would not put up with it. She was either involved in the decision making, or she wasn't, and would not allow either her gender or lack of an invite to a sport she had little interest in alter her point of view.

Even though I know ordinary folk (right conservatives) who are golfers there is an elitism associated with the sport that I cannot support. It is an expensive game. I would agree with everything Polar has said and more. Whether it is politicians, gangsters or other business leaders golf is their game of choice. I choose not to know about it, but I am devoid of interest in any sports or popular culture, so I am a really strange Gay man. :)

Wonderful piece, Angela.

I've known a few gay golfers, but just around city courses. I do recall a trans* convention, the Texas T-Party, which had the option of a round of golf with the girls, and it was very, very well attended (and everyone looked fabulous, too).

Great article, Angela!

While I personally don't follow golf, I think this is really an issue about pro sports in general. You see women's pro basketball players coming out as lesbian, but when was the last time you saw a male pro athlete come out as gay during his career? The few male pro athletes in the major pro sports that I know of who have come out as gay have always done so once they'd retired.

I think it's directly related to homophobia on the part of men. Remember how they treated Magic Johnson when he announced he had HIV? He was forced into retirement because many of his fellow players refused to play with him.

Conversely, when female pro athletes have come out there's usually been a little buzz about it in the media, but it usually doesn't have much lasting power as a story in the media. Martina Navratalova is a good example of this. She came out, it was in the media for a little while, and then media interest just faded and she continued on with her pro career pretty much as she had before.