Paige Spiranac may be the world’s most beautiful golfer, which is not as simple as it sounds. She’s attracted a lot of negative attention for this, I’m assuming mostly from fans of the previous holder of the title “world’s most beautiful golfer,” Lee Trevino. Spiranac talked to The Guardian about the harassment she received due to her selection as the starter at the Dubai Desert Classic, despite starter basically being the golf equivalent of a Walmart greeter.
“I was harassed, my family was harassed,” Spiranac adds. “I was receiving death threats, people were invading my privacy, I was being blackmailed. This was going on whilst I was trying to play.”
This behavior was in retaliation for Spiranac… being attractive, I guess? Possibly the fact that she has more fans than other, more successful golfers because she’s built a social media following as an aspiring pro.
Still, the feeling among fellow and former pros seemed to be that she was given opportunities inconsistent with her talent. When she appeared on the cover of Golf Digest as part of a special looking at the sport’s innovators, Juli Inkster, one of her favourite players, questioned the decision while the former pro Anya Alvarez said: “We need to question what type of innovators we want our future generation of female golfers to aspire to.”
Basically, pro golf wants to exclude and marginalize Spiranac because she’s attractive and popular, because apparently pro golf is a bunch of catty high school sophomores.
What’s all the complaining about, anyway?
Scandal! A woman having legs! She should be ashamed of her body and start wearing an LPGA-approved burqa immediately.
By the way, that outfit would violate LPGA on-course guidelines, because those guidelines are stupid and she’s dressed like an athlete. It’s kind of weird that golfers are expected to dress like they’re on their way to a lunch meeting at an accounting firm if golf is supposed to be a sport, though, isn’t it?
She has a better drive than I do, that’s for sure.
Look, Spiranac gets a lot of attention, and her 1.2 million Instagram followers is probably way higher than the number of people who would watch a golf tournament on television.
You’ll also be able to catch Spiranac in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue this year.
In an interview with Esquire about her appearance in the legendary annual publication, Spiranac said she doesn’t let the hate get to her anymore, which is great to hear.
Two years ago, [the negativity] definitely affected me. I became very depressed and I had a lot anxiety. It’s taken a little bit of time to work through all of that and realize that I can rise above it. Now I’m in a really good place and I’m not afraid to speak out on it, and I’m going to continue to speak out on it.
I realized that I could save the world and I would still get hate. I’m never going to try and please other people. All I can do is live my truth and be a good person, and I will feel right and fulfilled. That’s what matters.
Paige probably won’t be the number one golfer in the world anytime soon (she’s ranked sub-1000 in the world), but the game itself will probably never have a better ambassador.