Paige Spiranac Apologises for Being 'Insufferable' as Internet Invitational Crying Clip Returns

Paige Spiranac got there first. As Barstool released a clip of her in tears during last year’s Internet Invitational final, she reposted it herself and wrote the caption the internet was going to write for her: “Hand up, I apologize for being insufferable.” It is a short apology for a long argument, and its timing is the whole story. She is back in the same tournament, the clip is circulating again, and this time she decided to name it before it named her.

What happened in last year’s final?

The incident Spiranac is apologising for came on the ninth hole of the 2025 alternate-shot final, where she was partnered with Frankie Borrelli and Malosi “Mo” Togisala. Cameras caught her near Togisala’s ball in thick grass, and the footage appeared to show her pressing it down. An opponent flagged it, the argument played out on camera in front of the whole field, and Spiranac told the opponent the dispute showed they had never played competitive golf, EssentiallySports reports.

The rules math was never really in dispute, even though intent still is. The NCGA’s official breakdown of the event lists the sequence among its three main rules controversies and calls it a Rule 8.1 violation, which normally costs the hole. Her team lost the hole and then the match. Spiranac still disputes intent, telling viewers before this year’s event that she did it in front of Togisala, multiple people and multiple cameras, that she went to identify her ball, and that she did not think she had done anything wrong. That distinction, between what the cameras showed and what she meant by it, is the part of the story that never got settled, and it is why the clip still has power a year later.

Why did the backlash hit so hard?

Because it did not stop at golf criticism. Spiranac says she received tens of thousands of death threats, called it the worst hate of her decade online, and confirmed that conversations about a restraining order took place. She left social media for a while in 2025-26, saying she was in a funk that was not a one or two day thing, and that her anxiety had taken control, The Spun reports. She has also admitted she was painfully embarrassed not to know the rule at the centre of the row.

That embarrassment is the thread connecting the apology to the rest of her return. In her own recent account, she spent a long time feeling sorry for herself and frustrated that people were not seeing her for who she was, then realised they were only seeing what she was showing. Her framing for this year is about showing more of herself and less explaining and defending, The Spun reports. The apology fits that framing exactly: it concedes the behaviour without conceding the persona, and it does so in her own words, on her own post, before anyone else can set the terms.

What is different about this year’s tournament?

The scale, for one thing. Last year’s event was a $1 million tournament. This year’s edition features 64 players chasing $4 million, with a five-hour first episode released on Monday that has already passed 6 million views, The Spun reports. Spiranac and Bobby Ray have already lost their opening match 4&2 to Short Game King and Roger Steele, and episode 2 lands on Thursday, with the finale set for November 12.

The format is also producing its own fresh arguments, which is why the apology cannot be read in isolation. The tournament uses no handicap strokes, and that rule is at the centre of the row over Hailey Rae Ostrom’s declined request for a forward tee box. Spiranac addressed that debate with unusual candour, conceding that she plays probably a 3-4 handicap from the men’s tees instead of the plus-2 listed. It is the same honesty, applied to a different controversy: admit the awkward number, deny nobody the context, and move on.

Is this just a golf story?

No, and that is why it travels. Golf’s recent news has been full of players arguing about the game’s structures, from Eddie Pepperell calling the LIV invite list utterly bizarre to Daniel Hillier winning a car he did not know was on offer with a toed hole-in-one and Blades Brown becoming the youngest Korn Ferry graduate to earn a PGA Tour card. Spiranac’s story belongs to a different corner of the sport, the creator tournament, where the audience is as big as a tour event and the rules arguments play out in clips rather than committee rooms. The apology works there because clips are the currency, and owning the clip first is the only way to spend it on your own terms.

The test of the apology is still to come, and it will be decided on camera. If Spiranac keeps her scorecard clean through the rest of the tournament, the crying clip becomes a joke she owns, a before picture for a comeback story. If the rough finds her again, or another rules dispute finds her first, the caption starts reading like foreshadowing. Either way, she has already changed one thing about how this tournament will talk about her: the worst clip in her recent history now comes with her own caption attached to it.

What happens next?

Episode 2 on Thursday is the next checkpoint, and the November 12 finale is the horizon. Between now and then, every rules call involving Spiranac will be watched through the lens of last year’s final, which is exactly why she posted when she did. An apology made before the next controversy is a reset. An apology made after it would have been damage control.