Paige Spiranac was overwhelmed by the hate she received following one controversial mistake during the Internet Invitational golf tournament.
In fact, the popular golf influencer has revealed that she’s received “tens of thousands of death threats” after a cheating controversy that eventually ended up amounting to nothing.
Spiranac, a former college golf champion, broke her silence about the event in a Q and A session on Instagram Live on Tuesday.
“The last week and a half is probably the worst hate I’ve ever received in the ten years of me doing this,” Spiranac said. “I’m talking tens of thousands of death threats, people telling me to kill myself, the most vile, horrendous stuff you could ever say to an individual, that’s been in my DMs to the point where we were discussing me having to potentially get a restraining order.
“I mean, it’s serious stuff. It’s not easy, and it hasn’t been easy.”
Golf influencer Paige Spiranac answered questions about the Internet invitational controversy on an Instagram Live session.
The blonde bombshell said she was forced to take a mental health break from social media – where she boasts more than 5 million followers across her platforms.
“I know people are wondering why I haven’t posted or why I haven’t talked about it, I just needed to remove myself for my mental health,” she said.
“One thing that I really struggle with is wanting to be liked and accepted, and I don’t want anyone to ever dislike me, and I always try to do everything I can to have people like me, and so, it’s just hard for me as a person with how I process things and then obviously the situation has not been easy either, but luckily, having a good support system, family around and just trying to stay distracted.”
What was the controversy?
The controversy occurred during the final round of the made-for-streaming event, with the team of former U.S. Amateur champion Brad Dalke and Barstool’s Francis Ellis and Cody ‘Beef’ Franke (the competition was filmed not long before Franke’s death from a “sudden medical issue” late last month) faced off against the team of Spiranac, Barstool’s Frankie Borelli, and Good Good Golf’s Malosi Togisala.
During the alternate-shot matchup, Spiranac was accused of cheating after English pro golfer and YouTuber Peter Finch noticed her trampling down some grass in front of a ball in the rough. Doing so improved the lie for teammate Togisala.
After Togisala played an incredible escape, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy — who spearheaded the event — asked if “Paige put that on a tee” for him.
“That lie in the rough there, it was s***. Paige has gone ahead to the ball and literally pressed down all the long in front so he could hit it out,” Finch said, with a clip showing Spiranac appearing to bend over and press down the long grass with her hands.
“There’s no way he could have hit that shot without that.”
Finch discussed it with a playing partner and decided to wait to see how the hole played out before bringing up the violation.
Spiranac’s team wound up losing the hole, making it a non-issue, but she was given a heads up from Finch.
Tearful Spiranac said she didn’t know rule
“I thought you could do that. I didn’t realize you couldn’t do that. I didn’t move the ball,” Spiranac said.
After Ellis replied that “you can’t stomp around in long grass and create a clear path behind or in front of the ball,” Spiranac became very emotional, breaking into tears while reiterating that she “wasn’t trying to cheat.”
“I would never do that,” she adds. “I don’t want people to think that I would try to cheat.”
Spiranac said on Tuesday that she was embarrassed to have not known the rule and that it would’ve been “insane” for her to attempt to cheat with so many eyes and cameras on her at the event.
“I am painfully, painfully embarrassed that I did not know this rule,” she said. “I would never intentionally cheat. In all my years of playing golf, I have never been accused of cheating.
“There were so many cameras on me, to blatantly cheat with that many people around, that many cameras around would be insane. So, I made a mistake, learned now that it was a rules infraction, and I’ll never do it again.”
Not all of the messages that Spiranac received following the event were bad. The 32-year-old noted was thankful to those who checked in on her during this difficult time.
“It’s been an interesting week and a half, but I just want to thank everyone for reaching out, asking me how I’m doing, all the support really means so much to me,” she said.
