PAIGE SPIRANAC usually brushes off or even mocks her trolls.
But one set of “horrendous” claims at a major tournament became the “worst moment” of her life.
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The golfing influencer is famous for her daring fashion sense, mischievous photos and the cheeky chats she shares with her army of social media fans.
But back when her online career was in its infancy and she was tentatively building up her confidence, she encountered the “brutal” low point.
Spiranac says she was accused of “doing sexual favours” to get invited to the prestigious Dubai Ladies Masters in 2015.
Appearing on the “Quiet Please!” podcast, the 32-year-old was asked by co-host Mel Reid if she recalled playing there.
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Spiranac replied: “Yeah, that was like the worst moment of my life. I’ll never forget that.”
The American was surprised to be swamped by media demands before the tournament.
And then she was sickened to hear false claims of how she got a spot in the tournament – which actually came from a sponsored invite.
She recalled being suddenly thrust into the spotlight over her appearance in the event.
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She told the podcast: “I ended up going viral and this was back when people weren’t going viral all the time and I didn’t know how to handle it and my whole life got flipped upside down.
“I went from having 500 followers to 100,000 followers.
“I had just turned pro, I had never played golf outside the country. Everyone was like, ‘It’s low key, don’t worry about it. No one is going to know if you play well or not.
“I show up and was doing hours of press, which I wasn’t prepared for. I had no training to do this.
“And I would say there were a couple of girls who were really supportive and who were nice, but the majority, it was brutal.”
“I would go on the range and girls would just scatter. No one wanted to hit next to me.”
But that wasn’t rock bottom.
Spiranac added: “There were constant comments like ‘I did sexual favors to get this invite,’ and I was listening to it — and they would say [it] within earshots of me.
“It was tough. Not knowing what I was doing, it was my first pro event, it was really difficult. I just wanted to be liked and I played so bad. It was horrendous.”
She ended up shooting rounds of 77 and 79 to miss the cut.
Swing forward 10 years, and Spiranac is one of the world’s top sporting influencers, blending fun videos with golfing tips, while amassing 4million Instagram followers along the way.
She regularly chastises the golfing establishment over ‘fuddy-duddy attitudes to things like dress codes.
And in many ways she’s gone one-up on those who doubt her.
But she believes she’ll always remember that traumatic time in Dubai when she was new to it all.
A glimpse into the life of the golf influencer…
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