Even after being moved to tears on the golf course and later receiving “tens of thousands” of death threats following last year’s Internet Invitational, Paige Spiranac will be back for another go.
The popular golf influencer reportedly will once again compete in the tournament, which is hosted by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports.
This year’s tournament will see the prize pool expanded to US$4 million, as announced by Barstool founder Dave Portnoy.
During last year’s event, Spiranac was involved in a cheating controversy in the final after she was caught on camera flattening the grass in front of one of her teammate’s balls in the rough.
While Spiranac and her team weren’t penalized for the infraction, they would go on to lose the match on the final hole.
Spiranac has yet to confirm on Instagram or X her participation in this year’s event, but her involvement was reported by the New York Post on Monday.
How last year’s Internet Invitational unfolded
The controversy occurred during the final round of the made-for-streaming event, when Spiranac was accused of cheating after English pro golfer and YouTuber Peter Finch noticed her trampling down some grass in front of a ball in the rough. Doing so improved the lie for teammate Malosi Togisala.
After Togisala played an incredible escape, Portnoy asked if “Paige put that on a tee” for him.
“That lie in the rough there, it was s***. Paige has gone ahead to the ball and literally pressed down all the long in front so he could hit it out,” Finch said, with a clip showing Spiranac appearing to bend over and press down the long grass with her hands.
“There’s no way he could have hit that shot without that.”
Finch discussed it with a playing partner and decided to wait to see how the hole played out before bringing up the violation.
Spiranac’s team wound up losing the hole, making it a non-issue, but she was given a heads up from Finch.
Why did Spiranac receive death threats?
In November, Spiranac revealed that she was overwhelmed by the hate she received online following the controversial mistake, which she said led to “tens of thousands of death threats.”
“The last week and a half is probably the worst hate I’ve ever received in the ten years of me doing this,” Spiranac said during a Q and A session on Instagram Live. “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.”
After the controversy, Spiranac took several weeks off of social media.