The Travelers Championship took place last week in Cromwell, Connecticut, which is just a half hour from ESPN\u2019s campus in Bristol. So it stood to reason that PGA Tour golfers and Worldwide Leader employees might find themselves in the same spaces.<\/p>\n
What we didn\u2019t expect was that it would cause some messy social media drama.<\/p>\n
Our story begins on Saturday, when ESPN\u2019s Gary Striewski, who anchors\u00a0SportsCenter: AM and\u00a0SC+,\u00a0posted a TikTok video about a coffee shop encounter with an unnamed pro golfer and his \u201cgirlfriend\/fianc\u00e9e\/wife.\u201d Recognizing the WAG from her social media videos, Striewski found a table next to her and, while the golfer was retrieving their drinks, he leaned\u00a0over and asked, \u201cHas anyone spotted you yet?\u201d<\/p>\n
As he tells it, she looked at him derisively and said, \u201cI guess now?\u201d Striewski says he then went silent, turned around, and ate his meal, adding that he was later recognized and had a positive interaction with that person. The SportsCenter anchor also added commentary that, if you publicize yourself through social media or otherwise, there\u2019s an expectation that you\u2019ll be recognized in public, implying it\u2019s something to be accepted positively.<\/p>\n
@thekimchipapi<\/a> Was this weird ass interaction my fault? Am I trippin? #travelerschampionship<\/a> #connecticut<\/a> \u266c original sound \u2013 Gary Striewski<\/a><\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for people to put two and two together and realize Striewski was referring to PGA golfer Sahith Theegala and his fianc\u00e9e, Juju Chan, who has almost 47,000 Instagram followers and over 68,000 TikTok followers. And it didn\u2019t take long for the video to reach Chan, who offered a rebuttal to his POV.<\/p>\n @jujurchan<\/a> now let\u2019s get back to my regularly scheduled programming \ud83d\ude42 #pgatour<\/a> #golf<\/a> #golftiktok<\/a> #golflife<\/a> #wag<\/a> \u266c original sound \u2013 Juju<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe interaction that he\u2019s explaining did not happen the way he\u2019s saying it did,\u201d Chan said in her video. \u201cHe\u2019s continuing to let people believe a false narrative.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sitting in this coffee shop. Sahith was getting our coffee \u2026 This person comes and sits three inches away from me \u2026 As this person is sitting down, (he) directly says, \u2018Has anyone spotted you yet? To me, that\u2019s not a normal thing that people would say to me. I don\u2019t know who this person is. It\u2019s a weird comment to me, but I looked over, and I just laughed. I said, \u2018I guess now.\u2019 I said it lightheartedly. I was uncomfortable with the comment, but I was also trying to laugh it off. \u2026If he perceived our interaction that way, I\u2019m sorry. But that\u2019s not how it went down \u2026 I think it\u2019s extremely unprofessional given the line of work he\u2019s in. To encourage people to hate on me, that\u2019s uncool.\u201d
\nTheegala also added his thoughts in the comments of her post, saying<\/a>, \u201cThat guy should have never put you in a position like this\u2026 I love you so much, and I\u2019m incredibly proud of how you\u2019ve handled it, my queen. I see how kind and caring you are to all that interact with you, and the people close to us know your real, incredible self.\u201d<\/p>\n