Last year, Paige Spiranac returned to golf action after an eight-year hiatus. The golf influencer who gained a massive social media following as she shared her love for the game online, aptly lined up for the PGA Tour’s debut Creator Classic event along with a bunch of other YouTubers and internet personalities. However, she wasn’t too hopeful about her chances despite her over 5 million followers believing she had the chance to win the event. “I might win most golf balls lost but that’s about it lol,” she replied to a fan on X, who picked her as the winner. As it turned out, Spiranac was right about her chances as she finished the tournament in ninth place with a 2-over-par, meeting her goal of avoiding last place. So, it wasn’t a big surprise when her name was missing from the field for this year’s event.

This year’s event at TPC Sawgrass will tee off on March 12 and will see Roger Steele, George and Wesley Bryan, Gabby Golf Girl, and Fat Perez Sports return from the 2024 edition. New additions include Grant Horvat, Kyle Berkshire, Tisha Alyn, Chris ‘Soly’ Solomon from No Laying Up, and a Barstool Sports representative who will be chosen via qualifier. While Spiranac won’t return to the course this year, she will still be a part of the event but in a different capacity.

The golf diva will bring her charm to the broadcast team of the event, and it is something she is really looking forward to. She will join golf media personalities such as Shane Bacon, Doug Smith, and Dan Rapaport as part of the broadcast team. And it was Rapaport with whom she talked about her new move.

Talking on Dan on Golf podcast on 24 February, she said, “I am really excited. I think it’s going to be an amazing opportunity. It is unlike anything that I have done before, so I am a little bit nervous about that part of it.” She then opened up about what led to her making this decision.

“It’s cold where I live and my game wasn’t in great plain shape to tackle on Sawgrass and I was like, ‘I wonder if they would let me do on course and they were really receptive to the idea and I couldn’t be more excited,” she explained. Despite the rough start at last year’s event, Spiranac recovered well. She finished an impressive 9 in a 16-player field, just 4 strokes shy of the leader Wesley Bryan and 3 shy of playoff contention. But coming back after an eight-year hiatus, there were understandably some pre-game jitters.

Talking about her experience from last year, she mentioned, “It was awesome. I hadn’t played a real competitive strokeplay round of golf since I quit playing competitively which was 8 years ago.”  

Spiranac started her professional career on the Cactus Tour in May 2016. She earned a win over the top-ranked amateur in the world Hannah O’Sullivan, her only victory on the Tour. She also competed in the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in August of the same year but failed to earn a card. But she did pocket nearly $8000 in winnings on the Cactus Tour. That was the last year, she played professionally before turning to content creation on social media.

“I was terrified on the first tee. I was shaking,” she revealed. And the nervousness carried over for Spiranac, who stated, “I started out really rocky. I chunked my approach shot, chunked my putt and I went boogey par boogey and then I got those two birdies back to back and I was like, ‘Can I play professionally?” But then I went bogey, bogey and I was like ‘Nope, I’ll stick to content.'”

Spiranac will still bring a lot of attention to the event with her large social media following. Away from competitive play, fans can expect to hear more insights from her during the broadcasts. This is another big step for Spiranic after another major move last year.

Top Comment by Stephen schiller

Paige does not have poor form she has the ability to win. But her knowledge beauty and charm is better...more

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On December 6, the PGA Tour announced its lineup for its new Creator Council composed of a number of social media stars in the golf world, which included Spiranac. She joins other creators like Tisha Alyn, Erik Anders Lang, and Barstool Sports’ Fore Play podcast as the Tour seeks to “discuss fan engagement strategies, collaborative content opportunities, the evolution of the Creator Classic, and much more.”

Speaking about the opportunity back then she said, “I’m proud of the path I paved for myself in golf and how far this industry has grown with so many talented creators who share a common goal. To be on the Creator Council is an honor and I’m very excited to continue to do my part to grow the game!”

The 2024 Creator Classic was a bit of a game-changer for the PGA Tour. The event saw influencers across social media play an intense competitive eight-hole round of golf before the Tour Championship last year and drew nearly 110,000 viewers at one point on YouTube and was also streamed on ESPN+ and Peacock.

“The response from fans and from the content creators themselves has been overwhelming,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan had said about the event.

This year, the Creator Classic will also be broadcast on YouTube and will have three events throughout the year.

Creators Classic will have three events this year

The tournament format at TPC Sawgrass is pretty simple. Eight holes of stroke play that begins on the par-4 10 hole and ends on the legendary island-green 17 hole. The top three finishers advance to a sudden-death playoff on the 17 hole. This will be the first of three creator tournaments and will be broadcast on the PGA Tour YouTube channel along with other media platforms.

The second event will be held ahead of the Truist Championship at Wissahickon on May 7. It will be followed by the Creators Classic at East Lake on Wednesday, Aug. 20, ahead of the season-ending TOUR Championship.

As the PGA Tour looks to broaden its horizons, Paige Spiranac hopes her next move plays a role in helping golf gain more eyeballs.