{"id":681558,"date":"2026-06-03T09:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/681558\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:10:26","slug":"paige-spiranac-competing-in-4-million-internet-invitational-after-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/681558\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Spiranac competing in $4 million Internet Invitational after controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Internet Invitational is returning with an even bigger prize pool \u2014\u00a0and one of the most popular players is also returning.<\/p>\n<p>Former professional golfer turned influencer Paige Spiranac was featured <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/31\/sports\/paige-spiranac-gives-details-on-unresolved-beef-internet-invitational\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in last year\u2019s edition<\/a> of the golf tournament hosted by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports.<\/p>\n<p>She and her team made it to the championship, but ultimately lost on the 18th hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.80175781;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39546218\" width=\"473\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/paige-spiranac-instagram-for-chris-16551650.jpg\" alt=\"Paige Spiranac holding a golf club and looking over her shoulder with a golf cart in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-39546218\"  \/>Golf influencer Paige Spiranac <\/p>\n<p>However, some say that Spiranac\u2019s team made some suspicious moves in that final. <\/p>\n<p>She was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/04\/sports\/paige-spiranac-breaks-down-on-instagram-after-insecurities-exposed-by-vile-internet-invitational-reaction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">accused of cheating during the event<\/a>, stemming from one shot.<\/p>\n<p>After one of her teammates hit a shot that landed in the rough, Spiranac was caught on camera flattening the grass in front of the lie.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many golfers pointed to Rule 8, which states that golfers must play the course as found and make no modifications.<\/p>\n<p>Spiranac admitted to her mistake but said it was unintentional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am painfully, painfully embarrassed that I did not know this rule,\u201d Spiranac said in an Instagram story at the time. \u201cI 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\u2019ll never do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the tournament, Spiranac took a roughly two-week break from posting on social media due to the harassment she received online.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last week and a half is probably the worst hate I\u2019ve ever received in the 10 years of me doing this,\u201d Spiranac said. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019s been in my DMs to the point where we were discussing me having to potentially get a restraining order. I mean, it\u2019s serious stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.57296467;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39546115\" width=\"928\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/paige-spiranac-action-pro-event-127135504.jpg\" alt=\"Paige Spiranac in action during the Pro Am event prior to the Truist Championship 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-39546115\"  \/>Paige Spiranac at the Truist Championship Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Despite the backlash, Spirinac is back for this year\u2019s tourney, which has quadrupled its prize pool from $1 million to $4 million.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament date and location have not yet been set, but will again feature 48 competitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Internet Invitational is returning with an even bigger prize pool \u2014\u00a0and one of the most popular players&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,39346,99,1625],"class_list":["post-681558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-paige-spiranac","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}