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The Internet Invitational put Paige Spiranac in a bad light, and she said she has received a lot of hate in the aftermath.
Spiranac was part of the final group in the 48-person tournament of golf influencers and YouTubers run by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports. She was paired with Barstool’s Frankie Borrelli and Good Good Golf’s Malosi Togisala against Brad Dalke of Good Good, and Cody “Beefe” Franke and Frances Ellis from Barstool.
Spiranac’s squad lost the $1 million prize on the 18th hole of the final match, and many viewers considered it karma after both Spiranac and Togisala were wrapped up in cheating scandals. Spiranac was caught on film improving a lie in the final match, claiming she thought it was allowed and then started crying. Later, Togisala was speculated to have been using the slope on his rangefinder — rangefinders were permitted, but using the slope was not.
Spiranac, who got testy early in the championship by calling out Ellis for not playing “competitive golf” before, said she has received “tens of thousands of death threats” since the championship match was posted to YouTube during what has been “an interesting week.”
“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 on her Instagram Story. “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.”
Spiranac has been noticeably quiet on social media since the championship match dropped.
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“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.”
Spiranac again claimed to not know the rules about improving lies, saying she would never cheat on purpose.
“I am painfully, painfully embarrassed that I did not know this rule…” she said in an Instagram Story, hinting at the karma that hit her for her comments at Ellis. “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, I learned now that it was a rules infraction, and I’ll never do it again.”
The event was filmed over the summer at Cedar Lodge Resort in Ridgedale, Missouri, with the final match being played at Payne’s Valley. Franke, one of the winners, died earlier this month.
Spiranac was one of several former pros in the field, including Dalke and Wesley Brian.
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