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.
The golfing influencer is famous for daring outfits, 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 faced a “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.
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 when she arrived in the Middle East for the tournament.
And she was then sickened to hear false claims of how she had got her spot in the tournament – which actually came via a sponsored invite.
Spiranac recalled being thrust into the spotlight over her attendance.
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 even that awkwardness wasn’t rock bottom for her.
Spiranac explained: “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 earshot 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.”
Unfortunately, she then ended up shooting rounds of 77 and 79 to miss the cut.
Swing forward 10 years, however, and Spiranac is now one of the world’s top sporting influencers, blending fun videos with golfing tips, while amassing 4million Instagram followers.
She regularly taunts the golfing establishment over ‘fuddy-duddy’ attitudes to things like dress codes.
And many might think she’s gone one-up on her critics.
But Spiranac will always remember that traumatic time in Dubai when she was new to it all and the doubters did their worst.
