Paige Spiranac addressed the rumors that she performed “sexual favors” to get ahead early in her golf career.
“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,” she said on the March 19 episode of Mel Reid and Kira Dixon’s “Quiet Please!” podcast.
Spiranac became the subject of “difficult” online chatter during her first professional golf tournament in 2015, as many claimed she didn’t fully earn the invite based on her athletic skills alone.
“It was my first pro event, it was really difficult. I just wanted to be liked and I played so bad. It was horrendous,” the influencer, 32, said.
Reflecting on her career, Spiranac said she felt other women in the industry judged her because of her online status as an influencer.
Spiranac said she rose to fame because she “ended up going viral,” but said she wasn’t prepared for the attention she would receive from the public and in the media.
“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,” she recalled, noting that her following increased from 500 followers to 100,000 followers.
“I show up and was doing hours of press, which I wasn’t prepared for. I had no training to do this.”
While there were a few girls who “were really supportive” of her, the “OG Insta Golf Girl” shared that the “majority” of the women she encountered were “brutal.”
“I would go on the range and girls would just scatter. No one wanted to hit next to me,” Spiranac remembered.
Because of her brand deals and internet profile, Spiranac felt she understandably “ruffled” her peers’ “feathers” within the golf community.
“You work your ass off, week in and week out, and here comes me and I just walk on in,” she added.
The model’s appearance on the podcast marks the most recent time she’s addressed the difficult times in her life.
In a 2018 interview with Sports Illustrated, she recalled how the constant remarks about her led her to have an emotional moment before the 2015 tournament.
“I was sitting in the bathroom just balling and was like, ‘I don’t want to go through this pain, this feel of helplessness. Being alone. Scared,’” Spirinac said at the time.
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