Paige Spiranac responds to critics after her professional debut at Dubai Ladies Masters

NOT everything went according to plan when “the hottest female athlete on earth” made her professional debut.

as a preview for the 2015 Omega Dubai Ladies Masters on the Majlis Course at The Emirates Golf Club on December 7, 2015 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

INSTAGRAM phenomenon Paige Spiranac has responded to critics following a difficult first outing as she made her professional golfing debut at the Dubai Ladies Masters.

The golfing beauty, who has more than 480,000 Instagram followers despite only making her professional debut this week, was forced to defend herself against claims she was only given a spot in the tournament’s 108-person field because of her stunning looks.

The 22-year-old from Monument, Colorado in the United States, shot an opening round five-over 77 to finish her first 18 holes as a professional 11 strokes behind leaders Liz Young and Carmen Alonso, who fired six-under rounds of 66.

Spiranac shot to international fame earlier this year after her collection of glamorous social media photos saw her declared “the hottest female athlete on Earth” by a number of sports websites, including sportsgrid.com.

It helps that one of her golfing trick shot videos has more than 2.1 million views on YouTube

and she also has more than 54,000 followers on Twitter.

Some social media trolls have declared Spiranac’s opening round performance of a tie for 94th suggests she didn’t deserve a spot in the main field for one of the richest tournaments on the Ladies European Tour and she admits it will take time for her to silence the critics.

She said trying to deal with the pressure made it the hardest day of her life.

“There was some throwing up and tears before,” she posted on her Twitter account before deleting the post.

“Last night and today were the hardest days of my life to get through.”

Most people in interviews, "feeling confident and ready." Me in interviews, "I'm so nervous that I'm going to throw up and cry" 😂😂

— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) December 8, 2015

She said she understood her critics’ doubts.

“I understand where they are coming from,” Spiranac said after her first round.

“I mean, I’ve played golf and have had good results, but when you look at my game compared to the top players in the world, I’m not in the same league.

“But I wish they could see that I’m working as hard as I can. I may make it, I may not make it. But I’m just trying to focus on what I need to do to get to the next level and trying not to focus on what they say.”

She told dubailadiesmasters.com she was just relieved to have the whole day behind her.

“I am so glad to have it out of the way,” she said.

“I wouldn’t say I was dreading this, but certainly was nervous and anxious thinking about this for the last couple of months. So, to have it kind of over, it’s a relief and I am really excited about my second round.

“Overall, it was a pretty good round except for the shot on the last hole where I hit into the water. Yes, I am pretty happy with how it went for my first round and considering how nervous I was.

“My short game kept me going in the first part of the round and towards the end, I started to get my rhythm back and hit some pretty good golf shots, Hopefully, I can carry that over to the second round and just play how I know I am capable of playing.”

When asked if she had any message to convey to her huge fanbase, Spiranac said: “Please be nice to me.”

“I know a 77 is not the best score, but I broke 80, and I know people were putting bets on it. They were saying I wasn’t going to, so at least I’ve got that going for me.”

The former gymnast refuses to apologise for capitalising on her social media fame and admits it is one of the reasons she was invited to play this week.

“I’m very grateful to be here because of social media, I wouldn’t be here without it,” she said.

“I never really sought this invite out — it just came to me.

“I’m very fortunate that I have all these followers and that they like watching me and seeing what I do. So, I think it’s really cool, and it’s given me a gateway to help my professional golf career, and that’s really what I want to do, is just play golf, because I love it so much.

“This is my first tournament and from here I’ll play the first stage of qualifying school when it comes up again. I definitely want to earn my way on to Tour because I need more experience and more rounds under my belt before I do anything else.”

Four-time LPGA major championship winner Laura Davies said she has heard rumblings from within the dressing room about Spiranac’s presence, but is content to give the debutant time to find her feet on the pro tour.

“I don’t know her from a bar of soap,” Davies said.

“I’ve obviously heard what some of the players have said, but I’ve not met her. Everyone needs a chance and if she’s a good player, then I think it’s great she’s here, but if she’s here for any other reason than she’s a great golfer, then it’s a little bit pointless.”

It would not have helped the rumblings that Spiranac was less than discreet about her trip with tournament sponsor Emirates.

Spiranac documented her first-class trip to Dubai by posting a series of photos on her Instagram account.

That post received more than 27,000 likes on the site, but it’s hardly her best received photo.

Originally published as Paige Spiranac responds to critics after her professional debut at Dubai Ladies Masters