Wild! Paige Spiranac fires back with perfect response to being called the “worst media figure in golf”
The 33-year-old turned a public insult into a reminder that attention still works in her favor
Paige Spiranac has built her career in a part of sports media where attention matters almost as much as approval, and she appeared to understand that better than her latest critic.
The account Inside Golf recently published its list of the “Top 5 Worst People in Golf Media,” then included Spiranac among the next names in line. Her answer was immediate and concise.
“But you still follow me,” Spiranac wrote on X. The response quickly drew more than 1,000 likes and turned what was meant as criticism into another example of why her online presence continues to carry so much weight.
One of the biggest audiences in golf media
Spiranac ’s reach helps explain why that response landed. She has more than four million followers on Instagram, more than one million on X, roughly 1.5 million on TikTok and hundreds of thousands more on YouTube.
That audience puts her ahead of several prominent figures from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf when it comes to social reach.
It also gives Spiranac something many traditional sports personalities do not have, which is a following large enough to make criticism commercially useful.
A negative comment, repost or hate-follow can still create engagement. That's the point her response appeared to underline.
Criticism has long followed Spiranac’s rise
Spiranac has become accustomed to strong reactions around the way she presents herself, the golf content she produces and the broader issues she chooses to discuss online.
She recently entered another debate when she defended actress Sydney Sweeney over a Novig advertisement that drew criticism from several prominent voices in sports.
Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus wrote, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” while questioning the sexualization of women in sport.
Spiranac pushed back by pointing toward similarly provocative celebrity campaigns in entertainment and questioning why one type of promotion attracts outrage while another is often accepted without much discussion.
That willingness to engage directly has become part of her public persona.
Spiranac doesn't need everyone who follows her to be a fan. Her social media success has been built on visibility, reaction and the ability to keep people paying attention, whether that attention is positive or negative.
That makes the latest exchange almost self-explanatory. The account criticizing her was still following her closely enough to include her in a ranking and generate another conversation around her name.
