Paige Spirinac: Good for women's golf or not ?

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I think she does more harm than good, will young girls/ladies think they’ve got to have a body and looks like her or Carly to be successful, as thats all you see more of across the media rather than the real true lady ‘golfers’ right at the top who look more like overweight Rottweilers chewing a lemon sherbet!

Such a good point. We have a 13yr lass who has great potential and has been selected for the England Under-16 Girls Squad. She is now going through that phase of life that all girls go through - doubting themselves and their looks, stroppy and grumpy at times etc. She is working very hard on her game - but what might she think if she looks at Paige Spirinac and the success she has had - and asks why - and whether she should work so hard if Spirinac gets where she is - basically on the back of her looks. And how might our lass compare herself with Spirinac. I am not saying she is or will - because she seems very focussed snf driven - but who knows how young girls minds work.

 

[drdel]

Such a good point. We have a 13yr lass who has great potential and has been selected for the England Under-16 Girls Squad. She is now going through that phase of life that all girls go through - doubting themselves and their looks, stroppy and grumpy at times etc. She is working very hard on her game - but what might she think if she looks at Paige Spirinac and the success she has had - and asks why - and whether she should work so hard if Spirinac gets where she is - basically on the back of her looks. And how might our lass compare herself with Spirinac. I am not saying she is or will - because she seems very focussed snf driven - but who knows how young girls minds work.

Modern kids are more savvy with the media than you might think. Give your daughter more credit I'm sure it'll make no difference to her what such people do.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Will she register on the radar of a young female golfer? She might on a teenage boys radar but not a girls. What has she achieved in golf terms?

She has done well for herself using the combination of talents that she has but in pure golfing terms she has made no impact.

 

[Orikoru]

Will she register on the radar of a young female golfer? She might on a teenage boys radar but not a girls. What has she achieved in golf terms?

She has done well for herself using the combination of talents that she has but in pure golfing terms she has made no impact.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. A young female golfer would more likely look up to those whose names are at the top of the leaderboards I would have thought. I doubt any of them are thinking I'll use golf as a stepping stone to a modelling career. That's not exactly a common leap is it?

 

[dufferman]

I don't think she's helping the women's game. Who are we kidding, she's not posting swimsuit pictures in Sport's Illustrated for teenage girls sake is she?

People like Charley Hull, who does bits on Sky Sports here and there, is helping grow the game. Henni Zuël who presents on Sky Sports occasionally is helping grow the game by bringing the women's tour to a wider audience.

If my daughter wanted to find a role model in the game of golf, I don't think I'd be pointing her towards Paige's Instagram account.

Saying that, my daughter is 11 months old. So I don't have to worry about all that yet.

 

[Jacko_G]

Social media wise she is a more successful Carly Booth.

Both have people talking about them and but both ultimately have had to remove clothing to do so which I find is indicative of the modern world which is quite sad.

I wish both well but European Woman's golf looks like its grinding to a halt which is also sad and worrying.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

Such a good point. We have a 13yr lass who has great potential and has been selected for the England Under-16 Girls Squad. She is now going through that phase of life that all girls go through - doubting themselves and their looks, stroppy and grumpy at times etc. She is working very hard on her game - but what might she think if she looks at Paige Spirinac and the success she has had - and asks why - and whether she should work so hard if Spirinac gets where she is - basically on the back of her looks. And how might our lass compare herself with Spirinac. I am not saying she is or will - because she seems very focussed snf driven - but who knows how young girls minds work.

question tho wouldnt you tell the young lady to look at Spirinac and Booths rankings .. they may be gorgeous but they arent 1 and 2 in the world.. top 2 are natural looking (not that spirinac and booth arent.. just that they have the looks people want more often than not)

 

[Marshy77]

Good for the game - not sure.

Good for the bringing attention to the game and bringing it to a wider audience - most definitely. She has 1.3m followers on Instagram and continuously posts about golf - playing, practising and being at events. That's got to be good for the game.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I think she's largely irrelevant to women's golf. I don't think she has an impact on it either positive or negative.

Whether she is a good role model or not for teenage girls is a different question, but actually, putting to one side the approach she takes to getting noticed, she comes across as a thoroughly decent person. I'm not sure which teenage girls would really pay any attention to her. I wager that something like 90% of her instagram followers are male.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Modern kids are more savvy with the media than you might think. Give your daughter more credit I'm sure it'll make no difference to her what such people do.

Not my daughter. And yes - I am sure the lass is very media savvy - so for instance she tends to keep out of the groups pics of the juniors even though she is one...just not cool to be seen with a bunch of 6-12yr olds...

But just saying - I can see why a promising young lass might just think what's the point for all the slog and hard work when looks can get me onto the tour. The other side of the coin though could be that she sees an attractive young lass who is making it - by mixing an undoubted talent at golf with being a cool young lady.

 

[londonlewis]

I think she does more harm than good, will young girls/ladies think they’ve got to have a body and looks like her or Carly to be successful, as thats all you see more of across the media rather than the real true lady ‘golfers’ right at the top who look more like overweight Rottweilers chewing a lemon sherbet!

You might be selling the fairer sex short their Fish, unless you think they aren't smart enough to realise it is still 'lowest score wins'

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

Guess I am pre-historic but I had never heard of her before this thread.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

May be I just don't understand humans very well. But I don't know why people would think they have to look like Paige Spiranac to make it in golf? After all, she hasn't actually made it in golf. All she is is a decent golfer who is also attractive. In golfing terms she is a non-entity.

Now if the question was; is Rory McIlroy or Jason Day or Adam Scott or Tiger Woods etc a bad role model for young lads/men wanting to take up golf? that would be a different thing all together.

They are very fit, more muscular than most people and hit it a mile. Does this mean youngsters are going to be hitting the gym too hard, taking steroids in order to get bigger etc etc etc

 

[drdel]

May be I just don't understand humans very well. But I don't know why people would think they have to look like Paige Spiranac to make it in golf? After all, she hasn't actually made it in golf. All she is is a decent golfer who is also attractive. In golfing terms she is a non-entity.

Now if the question was; is Rory McIlroy or Jason Day or Adam Scott or Tiger Woods etc a bad role model for young lads/men wanting to take up golf? that would be a different thing all together.

They are very fit, more muscular than most people and hit it a mile. Does this mean youngsters are going to be hitting the gym too hard, taking steroids in order to get bigger etc etc etc

You have a point; but at the moment society is concentrating on hyping ladies as being the underdogs.
I'm told by people in teaching that young boys/men are becoming more and more focussed on the 'gym' look which is leading them into the hi-protein / steroid culture which is damaging to their long-term health.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I believe she has very little or any connection to golf anymore and has zero affect on the game - why would she , her fame is being on the Internet and being pretty nothing to do with golf. Suspect 99% of the Golf population have no idea who she is.

As for the cyber bullying- it’s poor that people abused her because of playing in a LET event it wasn’t her fault she got an event based on her popularity - but why didn’t she just delete her Instagram or twitter profile and the abuse would stop and she could instead of worrying about the online persona concentrate on being a pro golfer - but she was getting her fame and money from the online personality , I hope the bullying etc has stopped and it’s great she is trying to tackle it

Overall she will only have an impact now online and not on a course

 

[OnTour]

No idea started to read it then Peter Finch popped up so closed it FAST. she looks great It would make me watch the golf oh wait Michelle Wie bending over is enough.

 

[Hacker Khan]

She raises the profile of the sport through her social media activity which will connect with a specific generation that the sport needs to raise its profile in, so I suppose that can do no harm. Isn't the average age of female embers of golf clubs well into the 50s nowadays? Also from the admittedly little I have seen her in course logs she comes across as very personable, and didn't she sign for PXG recently?

I think there is a danger that she just becomes famous for being famous/attractive if she is not playing much golf. Nothing wrong with being attractive whilst performing a skill or sport to a high level, but when the attractiveness becomes by far the major thing then I think that is not the best.

 

[Papas1982]

Imo she’s an irrelevance.

If she was a little better then she could be considered to help the game. Imo the viewers she gets aren’t likely to be young aspiring girls, more likely loads of men. Good luck to her if it gives her a living. That being said she has to take the rough with the smooth, I’m not condoning the online abuse, but it is par for the course online. If it’s as bad as she makes out she should stop the online media she does, but of course she won’t as it’s her revenues source.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Imo she’s an irrelevance.

Agreed.
Sometimes people compare her to Anna Kornikova. But there is actually no real comparison.
One was a professional tennis player who competed at the very highest level (4th rnd, QF's etc of grand slam events, winner of doubles grand slam and reached no 8 in the world rankings). But also did very well out of the fact she was good looking.
The other is a model who plays golf, isn't world class at golf, doesn't compete with the best week in week out. She basically has the same impact on golf as Paulina Gretkzy.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

She raises the profile of the sport through her social media activity which will connect with a specific generation that the sport needs to raise its profile in, so I suppose that can do no harm. Isn't the average age of female embers of golf clubs well into the 50s nowadays? Also from the admittedly little I have seen her in course logs she comes across as very personable, and didn't she sign for PXG recently?

I think there is a danger that she just becomes famous for being famous/attractive if she is not playing much golf. Nothing wrong with being attractive whilst performing a skill or sport to a high level, but when the attractiveness becomes by far the major thing then I think that is not the best.

I'll have to ask the 13yr old lass in our place who is promising great things what she thinks of Paige Spirinac...

She may just be one lass and so her view must just be that of one lass - but there aren't that many 13yr old girls in the current England Under16 girls squad so her view might be interesting.

BTW - for an idea how good she is at 13 - she's quite a slight lass but last year she knocked it round Blackmoor in level par (and plenty here know of that Hants track)