Paige Spiranac looked back on her pro debut at the 2015 Dubai Ladies Masters and it brought back “brutal” memories of when she was barely holding it together.
During an appearance on the “Quiet Please!” podcast, Spiranac was asked by co-host Mel Reid, who is a pro on the Ladies European Tour, if she remembered playing in Dubai.
“Yeah, that was like the worst moment of my life,” said Spiranac, who shot rounds of 77 and 79 to miss the cut at the Dubai Ladies Masters. “I’ll never forget that.”
Spiranac — who graduated from San Diego State and then went pro in August 2015 — was a rising star on social media, where she posted snapshots of her sultry golf outfits.
Many believed that an invitation to the prestigious Dubai Ladies Master was above her level of play.
Spiranac told Reid and her co-host, golf personality Kira Dixon, that she heard gossip — including false rumors that she “did sexual favors to get this invite” — from fellow female players at the Dubai Masters.
“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,” Spiranac said.
“I got this invite to play an LET (Ladies European Tournament). I had just turned pro, I had never played golf outside the country. And 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.
“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.”
Spiranac, who recalled being “badly’ criticized for her play, explained that she understands why she “ruffled some feathers” with her sponsored invite to Dubai.
“You work your ass off, week in and week out… and here comes me and I just walk on in,” she said. “I got the new Callaway bag and I had Lulu Lemon that week. I can see why it ruffled some feathers.”
Spiranac has since turned her massive social media following into a lucrative influencer career, including brand deals and modeling gigs.
The blonde beauty, who has 4 million followers on Instagram and 1.6 million TikTok followers, made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut in 2018.
Spiranac was brought back as a “legend” for SI Swimsuit’s 60th anniversary issue last May.
She graced the cover of Maxim’s “Hot 100” issue in 2022.