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OMEGA DUBAI LADIES MASTERS

December 5, 2016

Paige Spiranac

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

BETHAN CUTLER: Welcome back to the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Masters. You made quite an impression here last year, 12 months ago. Perhaps just take us back in your memories of playing here in your first Ladies European Tour event.

PAIGE SPIRANAC: I actually don't remember much of last year. I was so emotional, so stressed out. It was great but it was also, my first pro event, I was so nervous and I was getting a fair amount of negative media attention, too. It was something I wasn't used to, all the media stuff, and it was great. It's really helped me out a year from now.

BETHAN CUTLER: What's your goal for this year's tournament?

PAIGE SPIRANAC: To not cry. I think that's the No. 1 goal. This was my goal last year and I failed miserably. So not to cry.

Q. What motivates you?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: My family, my parents. They have sacrificed everything for me. When I wake up every day, I want to make them proud of me. I work as hard as I can, because they literally have done so much for me. I look back on it now and they are the most incredible people. I just want to make them proud. So I wake up and work as hard as I can for them.

Q. Just looking back at last year's tournament, how important was that in your entire career as a professional golfer?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: Going through it, I said it was the hardest experience of my life but it made me so much stronger as a person, also as a golfer.

Right after that, I switched coaches, got a mental coach, and really took my game seriously and want to take it so the next level, and also as a person. I grew up and matured and then etc. Also kind of made me realise that golf isn't the most important thing in my life.

So this year, I'm really going to work with anti-bullying organisations and focus on cyberbullying. Everything I endured last year really took a toll on me mentally and suffered from some depression and anxiety because of all of the negative feedback I was getting and the cruel things people were saying about me.

I'm going to use that experience and hopefully help people who are dealing with bullying every single day, especially cyberbullying, to use my experience and help them deal with things they deal with every day, too.

Q. What is the mental coach you've hired and what are you working on?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: For my swing coach, I'm working with Tyler Hall now. Started working with him in February.

And Dr. Nick Molinaro; he's amazing. He's helped me go through everything I've gone through in the last year.

Q. From last year to this year, you've obviously made your first cut in The Scottish Open, as well, and you went to the second stage of the Q-School?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: So I won my first professional event and then made a cut on the LET at The Scottish Open. I think that was huge for me, because everyone was: You suck, and you can't break 80 -- which I actually broke 80 twice in this tournament last year so on what they were talking about.

It was good to prove to myself and show that I am a serious golfer, and I work really hard; and I might have gotten an invite and I deserved to be there. I proved that with the play and I played a lot of mini-tour events over in the States and done really well and did well in the State Opens. Played a lot of tournaments, so I've improved a lot and I'm happy with the progress that I'm making.

Q. One year later, what are the changes that you have felt and what have become your strengths in this last year?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: So I was working with Tyler and we decided to make me swing a little bit more simple and consistent. I had a lot of movement and so we kind of took more of that out and had shots that I could rely on under pressure.

Last year at this tournament, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was so nervous, and I had misses everywhere, just because I didn't know how to control my ball flight and the swing, so we've worked on trying to under pressure have a shot that I can count on and focus in on wedges and short game and putting and just try to take my game to the next level because everyone is so, so good out here and you have to work as hard as you can to be able to compete at any level.

Q. Do you have a target on the leaderboard in terms of targets -- I don't know, obviously to make the cut, and sort of go forward, do you have that sort of target?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, I try not to do -- set targets like that for myself. Obviously like I want to play well and I want to make the cut and I want to finish well. But I think just enjoying it this time around. Last year was so traumatic for me, and I kind of -- that was my fault.

But I just want to enjoy this experience and enjoy being in Dubai. The course is incredible. It's in such great shape. I know if I stick to what I'm doing, I'll have a good tournament.

Q. How does it feel to have already won in Dubai?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: It was awesome. This trip has been so great already. You're right, I did win, so I can go back a winner. It was such an honour that they gave me that award. The award ceremony was awesome. The whole time walking up, I was like: "Don't trip, don't trip, don't trip." It was great and a fun night and to meet the other people that were awarded, too. They are so incredible and talented, so to even be mentioned with them was such an honour.

Q. You said you were bullied, some of the comments you got on your social media platform. But then you also have something like golf in Dubai who really backed you last year and invited you again. How do you balance these two out? What do you feel about the other part of it where so many people had good things to say about your debut? You have an organiser, a promotor, who is backing you so much; about that.
PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, after last year's tournament, so many players reached out to me and they are like, you're going to be okay. Like it's not the end of the world.

Natalie Gulbis reached out, Christina Kim, and they gave me such great advice on how to handle everything. I think it was so hard because it was so new. I was just thrown into the fire and I didn't know how to handle it and I wasn't prepared for it, on the golf side and on the media side of things.

Like I said before, it's the most important thing and gave me a platform and made me realise that golf is not the most important thing.

I want to grow the game and I think that's the most important thing. So I embrace the media now. I embrace my platform now and use it for good and especially focus on the cyberbullying and growing the game, and everything I can to bring attention to this tournament for the best players of the world. This tournament deserves that and with Suzann Pettersen and Shanshan and Charley Hull is coming; to give them that recognition they deserve is great.

I do a lot of my work before with the media, and it's to promote them and it's to promote women's golf and get more people involved in the game, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with taking some time away from golf to help promote the game, especially for women. I think that's the best thing. I know if I make the cut or miss the cut, doesn't really matter, if the person who is winning is actually getting the press that they deserve.

Q. Aside from golf, you mentioned that you love comic books. What are your favourite comic books and what are your other hobbies?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: So I love Batman. He's like my all-time favourite. I watch all the movies, all the time. It's actually pretty sad how obsessed I am with them. When I go to Comic-Con this year coming up, I think that's on the bucket list. I've always loved comics.

Growing up I was very introverted I didn't have many friends, so something I would do was just go to comic bookstores and just read and get away. You feel invincible when you read stories of superheroes. It makes you feel good. It's just something I've always loved and will always love.

Q. Other hobbies, other activities?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: It's hard because I'm so busy right now. But I think one thing that I always love to do is just on the weekends. Just like I said, because I am pretty introverted, I don't go out, so I just stay in and bake and watch movies and just take some time to myself and actually just decompress. Yeah, just be alone.

Q. You talk about the importance of social media, but how do you balance that with wanting to play good golf, and you have to do so many social media engagements and media engagements, how do you manage that this week, for example?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: I still do the same practice that I do, and I know the days that I have a lot of media and the days that I don't, so I'll play extra. So today I'll just practice and play nine, but I played 18 the day before and 18 a couple days ago, as well.

I prepare for it now. I know the obligations that I have, and I embrace it and like I said, I want to promote the game as much as possible, and I think that I need to. I think golf needs to grow more and I think young girls and boys need to get more involved with it, and if they see like a cool video that I did and that inspires them to pick up the game for someone who has never loved golf before, now is interested in it, I think that's way more important.

I feel more fulfilled with that than if I play well or if I don't play well. I've kind of switched my goals around with what I want and what I don't want, and golf is still very important to me, because I want to kind of share that and do different things, as well.

Q. You talk about, too, how you had a difficult time after last year. How bad was it? How bad was the bullying? Because we see the bubbly side of you, but how bad did it get?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: It was really bad. Right after, I took about three weeks off, just not looking at anything. But when you see the comments that people say, they are extremely cruel. They attack not only me but my parents, my family, my friends, and you know, they say I'm a disgrace to golf. It's really hard and I still get those comments and I still deal with it every day (tearing up).

Q. We all think you're doing a great job for golf, so keep going?
BETHAN CUTLER: Let's move on --

PAIGE SPIRANAC: I think it's really important. I think people need to see how much it actually does affect me, and the things they call me. I feel like I was raised right from my parents, and for them to attack my parents and attack what I'm doing, it's really difficult. I struggled with a lot of depression after it, because as a 22-year-old, you feel like you're not worth anything.

You feel worthless, and no matter what you do, it's never good enough. So to have all these people say that I'm not like a golfer, I'm not a good person; you know, I'm promise accuse or make these judgments about me that are not true, it's really hard, just because I like to wear Spandex on the golf course. You think about it and it seems so foolish, you about you never know what that person is going through in their life.

Teenage suicide rates are up right now, and they think it's because of cyberbullying. And so if I can share my story and I'm okay with being emotional about it and I'm okay with kind of expressing what happened to me, because people don't realise how hard it was on me and how hard it was and the comments I do get and people threatening my life and saying the world is better off without me, people don't see that side of it. I think it's really, really important to share that with everyone.

So it doesn't matter how I play this week, it really doesn't. But the fact that I'm here and I'm sharing my story, hopefully can save someone's life, I think that's so much more important than if I make the cut or miss the cut (applause).

BETHAN CUTLER: What would your advice be to someone who was in your situation or advice that you received.

PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, I think anyone who is being bullied, I think the most important thing is to have someone you can talk to, and I think people are ashamed of the fact that they are being bullied and they don't feel like they are cool enough or they are not good enough. I think it's important to kind of express that to other people, and to have outlets.

So I kind of want to show people that it's okay; like it's okay to be depressed if you have a bad comment, or it's okay to struggle with it. But if I can be that person that can talk to them about it, I think that's really important.

I think Christina Kim and Natalie Gulbis and like my family, they were there for me. So I think it's important to have a strong support system and someone you can talk to, and share these stories publically and openly, because no one talks about it, they really don't.

Cyberbullying is a huge problem and no one ever discusses it. They never talk about it. It needs to be talked about and needs to be brought to the subject. It's no longer funny. It's not the cool thing to do to make fun of other people, and you need to be supportive and I think that's really important.

Q. Did you ever question whether it's worth carrying on in golf? Did you think perhaps to quit?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, after the last round, you asked me that question, how I want to proceed, and I said, I don't think I want to play golf anymore. Like I said, didn't feel worth it. Regardless of how I was going to shoot, everyone is going to say I stuck and I'm terrible and I'm never going to be good enough. So what's the point to keep trying to get better when I felt like I could never win. It was tough.

I love the game. I golf the game so much. If I didn't love it, I would have quit a long time ago.

BETHAN CUTLER: Is there in way you can just ignore it, or is that the way you deal with it? What would you do, because you obviously love social media and you put your stories out there and it's really positive, as well. So how do you now actually deal with it?

PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, it's funny, people are like, grow a thicker thin, or don't look at the comments.

I think the bigger is the fact that they are not being nice. Why can't they just be nice, and then the whole problem would disappear. I try not to look at the comments anymore. I try to ignore as best as possible, but when you have thousands of comments and messages coming in and some of are negative, it's hard to ignore after awhile and it does take a while.

You do have to ignore it at some point but also you need to look at the bigger picture and you can't ignore it every single day. You need to make it a point to really just change how everything is going on social media, because with all the regulations on Instagram, unless they are directly threatening you, you can't remove the comments. So it could be the meanest, cruelest thing, and they can't do anything about it. It's hard.

Q. That's going to be my next question. You alluded to death threats. Did you go to authorities?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: It's more like: The world would be better off without you; you're a disgrace to golf; wish you had never been involved with it.

I report it but nothing really happens with it. They are not saying: I'm going to your house on this day and I'm going to kill you.

They can't do anything really about it.

Q. Just to switch gears a bit. I saw somewhere that you hit driver off some guy's face sometime, I don't know where that was, but that was quite interesting. What are some of the crazy things people ask you to do, being the personality that you are?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: Yeah, that was really interesting. So I did the whole interview with them and they are like, okay, now you're going to hit a ball off my face. I was so nervous, and it ended up being okay, didn't hurt him.

I don't really get that many weird requests. They will take like a picture of me and I can like tell they are like looking at me if I'm at the golf course, and then they will tag me in it later and be like, hey, I saw you here. I was like, why didn't you come up and say hi to me, that would be better.

If I'm at a hotel, sometimes they will send me ice cream to my room or things they know I like, like cake. So I'm not complaining about that, though.

Q. I just want to ask you about the reason why you choose to study communication, and what is the things that you really like want to learn to change in the future?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: I love how people interact and why they do what they do or why they say what they say. It's a very interesting dynamic with how people interact in person and how they interact over social media. No one would ever really say what they say on social media to someone's face, or at least I hope they wouldn't. It's really interesting.

I callback on my education at SDSU, and I did all my com classes and it teaches me a lot. I always say that golf is something I love but helping people is a passion of mine. So I think I have this platform now and I can communicate what I want and I can use it for. Hopefully I can keep helping others and keep progressing with anti-bullying organisations and keep doing good.

Q. What is your proudest moment on Tour?
PAIGE SPIRANAC: I think it was actually at The Scottish Open, when I made the cut, because I started off so bad. I bogeyed the first hole, doubled the second, parred and bogeyed again. I was like: Oh, my gosh, this is going to be the worst round ever. And it ended up turning out to be really good, because I made like three birdies coming in and it just felt good to like prove myself and actually make a cut and prove what everyone was saying was wrong. It was good. It was fun.

BETHAN CUTLER: Thank you so much for your time.

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