TARANTO, Italy (AFP) - Mianne Bagger's bid to become the first transsexual to play on the Ladies European Tour (LET) looks to be all but assured bar a last round collapse as she finished the penultimate round in fourth spot at the qualifying school.
The 37-year-old Australian-raised Dane shot a level par 72 to trail the trio of Anna Highgate from Wales, Miriam Nagl from Germany and Lisa Holm Sorensen from Denmark.
Bagger has got her chance because LET made a rules change to their membership regulations to be in line with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations on Trans-Gender athletes.
There have not been too many high profile cases of transsexuals making it onto a sport's professional tour with American Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, playing on the WTA tour in the 1970's and Michelle Demaresq competing in mountain bike racing for Canada.
The cut fell at 11-over par and 52 players will contest the final round.
The top 30 players and those tied for 30th place will earn full playing rights to next years Tour, while the remaining players will receive conditional playing privileges in 2005.
11/02/2004 - 17:42 GMT - AFP