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Paige Spiranac watches a putt on the 10th hole during the 2024 Creator Classic prior to the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on August 28, 2024.
Barstool Sports hosted the Internet Invitational weeks ago, but it has been making headlines ever since. The heavily successful tournament, produced and hosted by Barstool Sports, brought 48 of the most popular golf content creators together. They battled it out Ryder-Cup style in pursuit of the $1 million prize. In teams of 3, it came down to some of the top performers. All with hopes of securing the win, no matter the cost.
Fans have heavily dissected the Internet Invitational since its release. Including a pivotal moment in which Paige Spiranac appears to be cheating. Although she later denies it, fans are left torn over the incident. Spiranac has since gone silent on social media in response to the backlash.
Spiranac Caught Cheating
After her teammate “Big Mo” Malosi Togisala hit his shot into the fescue, Spiranac is seen adjusting the tall grass in front of his lie. A direct rule violation in professional golf. Alongside Spiranac and Toglisala was teammate Frankie Borelli, who co-hosts the podcast “Fore-Play.” Borelli later defended Spiranac, stating,
“I totally don’t think that she was trying to do anything specifically to help us win. There’s so many cameras out there. She’s been at this for so long,”
“If you think that something that she had done crosses some sort of rule infraction, then like, I don’t know, people are allowed to have their own opinion. Do I think that she was trying to improve the lie? No. I also think that the footage probably doesn’t look the best.”
When confronted during the Internet Invitational, Spiranac began by stating, “I didn’t know you couldn’t do that.” She then began to cry over the accusation.
Ahead of the release of the final episode, Spiranic stated, “There’s more important things than wanting to be liked, but I do want to be liked. And I want to fit in, and I’ve tried for a lot of my life to find places where I can fit in.”
Spiranac later took to social media, writing: “sorry for being emo last night but thank you again for all the super kind messages… I’ll save my deep[,] dark insecurities for therapy next time lol.”
To make matters worse, prior to this shot, Spiranac chirped her competitor. While competing against the threesome of Brad Dalke, the late Cody “Beef” Franke, and comedian Francis Ellis, Spiranac made a comment on their style of play. After being denied a short putt, Spiranac commented on the decision. She stated, “that’s crazy,” later adding something along the lines of “that just shows you’ve never played competitive golf.”
Internet Invitational
Following the footage release of the controversial shot, Spiranac has since gone silent on an otherwise active social media account.
Fortunately, at the end of the day, the shot didn’t matter. Brad Dalke, the late Cody “Beef” Franke and comedian and fellow of Barstool, Francis Ellis won the cool $1 million prize.
In light of the popularity of the Internet Invitational, Dave Portnoy already has big plans for the future. Following the Caitlin Clark appearance at the Annika alongside the Kai Trump controversy, Portnoy and company has already secured yeses to next years event. Although he isn’t sure of the validity of those statements, Portnoy is looking forward to the 2026 Internet Invitational, hoping to increase the purse from $1 million to potentially $10 million.
Sydney Jones Sydney Jones is a sports writer covering all things Golf, Mariners, and Seahawks for Heavy.com. She has experience covering the intersection of sports and human interest stories for multiple publications. Originally from Montana, she recently relocated to Seattle and is enjoying the new experience of being surrounding by live professional sports and rooting for a common team while writing about them. More about Sydney Jones
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