Famous sporting influencer Paige Spiranac has come out of hiding to address a cheating scandal that has caused a major stir among the golfing community.
Spiranac appeared in a $1 million Internet Invitational which was shown in a series on YouTube (that concluded two weeks), and had more than 20 million views.
But the tournament came to a controversial end when cameras caught Spiranac tampering or brushing grass in the rough around her teammate’s (Malosi “Big Moe” Togisala) golf ball before he took the shot on the ninth hole.
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Cheating allegations followed as Spiranac was confronted by her rivals. She broke down in tears on the course, and then went to ground.
Now, Spiranac has addressed the situation, saying that she was “painfully embarrassed” by the ordeal, while also revealing the level of vitriol and hate she had received since the final episode went to air.
“I haven’t really talked about it because there’s not much to say about the situation,” she said on social media.
Paige Spiranac has addressed a cheating scandal that soured a $1 million Internet Invitational. Credit: @Paige Spiranac
/Instagram
“I am painfully, painfully embarrassed that I did not know this rule,” she told her millions of followers on social media.
“I would never intentionally cheat. In all my years of playing golf, I have never been accused of cheating.
“I thought high grass was a loose impediment … There were so many cameras on me, to blatantly cheat with that many people around, that many cameras around would be insane.”
Spiranac has 4 million followers on Instagram, 3.5 million on Facebook, 1.7 million on TikTok and another million-plus on X.
She said it was an innocent mistake and she had now learned that it was a rules infraction and “I’ll never do it again”.
“The last week-and-a-half is probably the worst hate I’ve ever received in the 10 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.”
She said the reason she had gone to ground was to protect her mental health.
“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.
“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.”
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