Is Paige Spiranac Good for Golf? The New Ways Golf is Growing

            It should come as no shock to you that today’s release of Paige Spiranac being a featured athlete in the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was met with both praise and admonishment.  Since bursting onto the golf scene less than three years ago, Spiranac has been a lightning rod for all arguments surrounding the golf landscape and how the game is changing amongst millennials.  Why is she judged against golf’s gold standards?  Because she is setting new standards for professional golfers, models, social media influencers, charitable ambassadors, and any other title that has been used to describe her.  Spiranac is in uncharted territory and the golf industry needs to pay attention to how she is drawing the map.

            I should start by saying that yes, I am a big fan of Paige Spiranac.  Like many who first noticed when her @paige.renee Instagram account garnered a lot of attention, I was drawn to a golfer who could have fun on the course and make fun of herself off of it.  Her love of comic books, installing a bounce house in her apartment, and ability to laugh when her trick shots failed, showed that she was not just another boring golfer to follow on social media.  It obviously did not hurt that she was better looking than other entertaining golf accounts (sorry John Daly).  Anyone could see that she was unique and was approaching professional golf in an unusual manner.  Her kind demeanor and game began to fascinate the golf world and has grown her little Instagram account to over 1.3 million followers.  When I had the opportunity to meet her at TopGolf in the fall of 2016, I couldn’t help but walk away thinking that she was probably the nicest person I had ever met.  After asking if I could get a picture with her in my incredibly shy manner, she not only obliged, but initiated a conversation afterwards.  We spoke for ten minutes about a bunch of topics, which is a great deal of time when you consider that she was hosting an event that was about to begin.  Companies that sponsor athletes can only hope that they are half as great a person as Paige is.

            While Spiranac may draw some new people to the game, it is not fair to judge her based on this ability.  The reason being is that it is not fair to judge any players for being able to get non-golfers to pick up the game.  Since the dawn of the 20th century, there have maybe been a dozen or so players that can have the growth of golf be attributed to them.  Francis Ouimet championed golfers who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth and those who were looking for a modern day “David” to take down the golfing equivalent of “Goliath”.  He did this by winning the 1913 US Open against Harry Vardon.  Bobby Jones drew people to the game through his dominance in the 1930 season, winning the Grand Slam.  Babe Didrickson Zaharias was the first female star of the game, attracting new players through her stellar play in golf and other sports.  Arnold Palmer brought people to the game through his aggressive, blue-collar style when golf first became televised.  Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Roberto De Vicenzo, and Seve Ballesteros nurtured the game in their respective home countries, which had traditionally not possessed a large golfing population.  Se Ri Pak exponentially grew women’s golf in Southeast Asia; her home country of South Korea now producing LPGA Tour success stories at a prodigious rate.  Tiger Woods produced the “Tiger Boom” a sudden increase in the popularity of the game in the early 2000’s, created through his dominance of a traditionally white sport by a multi-racial athlete.  His power and athleticism showed that golf was not a game strictly for the elderly, exponentially growing the number of junior golfers in the United States.  Each of these players grew the popularity of golf because they were the first of their kind to have significant achievements in the sport.  Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Annika Sorenstam, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson are some of the greatest Champions golf has ever known, but none of them grew the game in large numbers because they were not the first of a new breed.  This is why although it is not fair to judge Spiranac on her ability to grow the game, she may be in the early stages of doing so.  Social Media may be where the game’s next big star comes from.

            The growth of social media has produced the ability for people of all walks of life to share their opinions with the world.  As we have all learned by now, this is not necessarily a good thing.  (I think we can all agree that Facebook was much better before everyone became a “political activist” from the confines of their couch.)  Thinking of a couple other prominent female golfers from the last 15 years who have become famous for their looks in addition to their game, I cannot help but think that this issue was different for Natalie Gulbis or Blair O’Neal.  Gulbis was given her own reality show on the Golf Channel before she had ever won on tour.  Blair O’Neal was signed as a brand ambassador for Cobra/Puma in 2011, following minor success on the LPGA Futures Tour and stints on “The Big Break”.  Although social media existed at these times, their use for negative feedback did not exist.  Both have continued to grow their brands, but were not subjected to the same ridicule as Spiranac.  Other female golfers have modeled their bodies in publications such as the Swimsuit Issue or “ESPN: The Magazine’s Body Issue”.  Save for Lexi Thompson, none of these players have seen a great deal of success on the professional level.  The only reason that the blowback for their actions was not as large as Spiranac is because they were not as available to the negativity of social media.  The pessimism of the public opinion is only being thrust upon the new generation because social media makes them accessible to both their fans and their detractors. 

            Spiranac and her rise to success as a professional golfer has created copycats, trying to find that same lightning in a bottle as a way to victory.  Without calling out individual players, a look through Instagram accounts such as @golfbabes will show hundreds of females who are trying to use their games and their beauty as a way to garner sponsorship money, entry into tournaments, or other professional deals, which until a few years ago were not available to golfers of their abilities.  In many cases, these players will have more sponsorship money than those who are significantly higher in the world rankings or have actually maintained status on a professional tour.  While these players have gained so much from the game, they have not put much back into it.  Rarely will you see them completing charitable work, speaking to younger athletes, or doing anything other than promoting themselves.  (Spiranac is an ambassador for the Cybersmile Foundation, to stop bullying on social media.)  This is the negative side of social media.  In the age of YouTube stars and Instagram models, this is a trend that is not just exhibited by athletes trying to make a name for themselves.  Although Spiranac is rarely guilty of this trend, it is indirectly being blamed on her.  With any changes in how people are attracted to golf, there will always be an “old-guard” that does not like the change.  (We don’t need to go into golf’s history regarding women or minorities in the game, those atrocities are well known.)  The use of social media, changes in format of professional events, and the growth of TopGolf are the future of the game.  While they may not confirm to the traditional, they are evidence of how new players that are less willing to spend 4+ hours playing a round or watch hours of boring television coverage.  While not all the changes are positive, they far outweigh the negatives.

            In conclusion, social media is one of the new ways in which golf is growing, but we have not been able to fully assess how much it is helping the game.  Changes in tournaments, how the game is played, and by whom will also not be fully understood for years.  Paige Spiranac was not the first golfer to garner attention because of the way she looks, but has been subjected to more negativity because she is accessible to additional people.  There are some negatives to how the game and its stars are changing, but that has been true since golf first began.  The “old-guard” will always be there to protect the traditions of the game, but for the first time they have a voice that can be heard by all, and not just in posh locker rooms.  Although there are those trying to copy Spiranac in how she has become successful, they are missing how kind of a person she is and how much she does for the game and her community.  Athletes from all genders and sports should look at her as a model for how to grow in a positive manner and not just how she models a swimsuit.