Paige Spiranac has been one of golf’s most active social media users for the past five years.
The prominent golf influencer, who played collegiately at the University of Arizona and San Diego State, briefly played professionally. Since then, she’s become one of the top influencers on golf social media. Spiranac has more than four million followers on Instagram, with millions more on X, TikTok and YouTube.
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But Spiranac has recently been embroiled in controversy. She was accused of “cheating” in The Internet Invitational, held by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports.
Paige Spiranac watches her teammates putt on the No. 6 green during the 2023 Kaulig Companies Championship Pro-Am at Firestone Country Club, Wednesday, July 12, 2023, in Akron, Ohio. © Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK
Spiranac was accused of intentionally improving her lie in tall grass during the final round of the $1 million tournament. She and her teammates hit a shot into the deep grass in the final round of the three-on-three alternate shot event. Spiranac was seen stomping around in the grass, appearing to improve her team’s lie.
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“I didn’t know you couldn’t do that,” Spiranac said when accused of cheating.
Spiranac’s teammate, Frankie Borelli, addressed the accusations.
“I totally don’t think that she was trying to do anything specifically to help us win. There’s so many cameras out there. She’s been at this for so long,” he said.
“If you think that something that she had done crosses some sort of rule infraction, then like, I don’t know, people are allowed to have their own opinion. Do I think that she was trying to improve the lie? No. I also think that the footage probably doesn’t look the best.”
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Spiranac has gone radio silent
Spiranac, who is typically quite active on social media, last posted on Nov. 8. That’s nearly two full weeks ago.
The golf world gave Spiranac and her teammates a lot of heat on social media over the cheating accusations.
Spiranac previously addressed criticism earlier in the tournament, before the latest cheating accusations surfaced.
“There’s more important things than wanting to be liked,” Spiranac said prior to the final episode. “But I do want to be liked. And I want to fit in, and I’ve tried for a lot of my life to find places where I can fit in.”
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She then added: “sorry for being emo last night but thank you again for all the super kind messages… I’ll save my deep[,] dark insecurities for therapy next time lol.”
Since then, though, it’s been crickets.
This story was originally reported by The Spun on Nov 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
