A golfer who was born a male but who subsequently underwent a sex change operation and recently won the South Australian Women's Amateur Championship has opened up a whole new area of debate in the golf world.

Indeed, a former Irish champion and international, Maisie Mooney, in her position as executive director of Women's Golf Australia, has found herself to the forefront in defending the association's decision to encourage transsexual players to participate in its championship and possibly even represent the country in international competition.

Mianne Bagger, who was born a male in Denmark 32 years ago, underwent a sex change operation seven years ago in Australia and last week became the first transsexual to win a major amateur championship when beating Lyn McGough 5 and 4 in the state final. Bagger's participation was encouraged by the WGA who had spent the past year formulating its policy on transsexual players.

The player has received surprisingly strong support from a notoriously conservative amateur establishment, and Mooney explained the WGA's stance in the absence of central legislation: "There are some people who take a position that is very simple and say she (Bagger) is not a woman because of the residual physiological power that a transgender female will have . . . as a sport, we had to make a decision ourselves.

"Taking into account all the information we've had, our policy will be that Mianne and other transgender females who have had sexual reassignment will be female golfers.

"There is no doubt that transgender females are considered, because of the XY chromoso,e factors, to have superior strength. In our sport, strength does not equal skill. It does not equal success in golf. It may in other sports, for example women's cricket or softball, where there is upper-body strength which is inherited from their male gender, and which may give them an advantage. Irrespective of all that, the laws of the land are such that someone who has sexual reassignment in this country (Australia) is accepted as a female."

Mooney, who beat Mary McKenna in the final of the Irish Close in 1973 and represented Ireland in international competition from 1968 to 1974 as well as playing Vagliano Trophy for Britain and Ireland, was asked what her feelings would have been if, in her own playing days, she faced a transsexual player on the first tee.

"My point of view as a player was that there was no-one who could beat me when I was playing at my peak . . . I was so absorbed in my own golf and confident in my own skills that it really would not have mattered who was standing in front of me."

There is a huge grey area surrounding this particular issue. Players like Bagger would be barred from competing in the United States (where the governing bodies moved to prevent such a situation in their sport after Renee Richards succeeded in playing in the US Open tennis championships after undergoing a sex change) but there is no legislation to govern many other championships, for instance the world team championship, and Mooney observed that if someone like Bagger played her way onto the national team then she would be selected.