"Rising tides lift all boats," – Paige Spiranac fires back at journalist over YouTube golf vs. pro golf debate

Paige Spiranac hit back at golf journalist Kyle Porter, who said watching YouTube golf was more entertaining than professional golf. She argued that professional golf would always be the king and that the sport didn’t need more division.

On Saturday, January 25, the final group featuring Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Aldrich Potgieter took a whopping five hours and 29 minutes to finish their round at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Normal Sports' founder Kyle Porter took to X to express concern about the PGA Tour's current state. He wrote that it was more entertaining to watch favorite YouTubers play on fascinating courses for 40 minutes than to watch professionals play for over five hours.

Paige Spiranac had a different take and quote-tweeted Porter via her X to share her views. She said that professional golf would always be the mainstay.

"Golf media personalities are having their moment now because there is so much division in the game," she wrote. "We don’t need more division by comparing YouTube golf to pro golf. They are completely different entities and need to work together to be successful."

"Once golf YouTube is deemed corporate it will then be uncool and people will flock to pro golf again. It’s a cycle. Rising tides lift all boats. Something I think golf is forgetting right now," she added.

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Paige Spiranac reveals the story behind her social media username

On Friday, January 24, Paige Spiranac did a Q&A session on Instagram where one of her fans asked the story behind the 'Renee' in her social media user name. She said that there was a sad but funny story behind her username.

"My full name is Paige Renee Spiranac. Renee is my middle name," she revealed. "In college, during my senior year, I was getting harassed and stalked by a group of girls. I decided to get rid of all of my social media."

"A couple of months later, I ended up going viral, and my username has stayed as Paige Renee ever since. That’s why it has the underscore and the period. That’s kind of how it all started and why I had just a solely golf account. And, well, that was that," she added.

Image via instagram@_Paige.renee

Paige Spiranac played professional golf until 2016 and won one title on the Cactus Tour, but she never played on the LPGA Tour. However, she is now one of the most renowned faces in the golf fraternity. She has over four million followers on Instagram and more than a million on X. Further, she has over 1.6 million followers on TikTok.