The internet brings out the best and worst in people — and Paige Spiranac has been riding that rollercoaster this week.
The star golfer — and her biggest fan — have left fans chortling this month after she outed the Instagram user for his campaign of private messages sent to the social media influencer.
In a post on her X page earlier this month, Spiranac revealed one man has left the same “great cans” statement on all of her social media posts “for years,” and the remarkable consistency has seriously impressed her.
Going public with the messages she has consistently received has seen the situation take a twist with Spiranac revealing the fan has since gone to ground.
In an X post on Friday, Spiranac revealed her commenting friend has not replied to her recent posts — but others have since taken up the mantle.
“Good news and bad news,” she posted on X.
“Bad news is he hasn’t sent me a “great cans” message since I posted this which is devastating. Good news is I’m now getting flooded by “great cans” messages by the rest of you.”
She recently admitted the fan’s commitment has brought her joy.
“There is this guy who comments ‘great cans’ on everything I post,” she wrote. “In a world full of hate and despair, I know he will always be there for me to lift my spirits.”
Spiranac then shared a screen shot of her Instagram direct messages, and sure enough, on three separate occasions over the last couple days, the fan was in her inbox.
Of course, Spiranac, who boasts four million followers on Instagram, hasn’t always had the best relationship with her social media followers, The New York Post reports.
In addition to dealing with body-shaming comments, she said late last year some left death threats after she was at the centre of a cheating controversy during the Internet Invitational.
Spiranac actually said earlier this month she recently took a break from social media because of the anxiety she got from living so firmly in the public eye.
Seems, though, she’s back on it — and finding even the smallest ways to have it impact her positively.
During a fan Q&A on her Instagram Story last month, Spiranac explained that she’s been dealing with anxiety for some time and “overthinking everything,” resulting in her being absent online.
“I am in a bit of a funk, a rut if you will, and its not like a one or two day thing,” Spiranac said. “This has been going on for a little bit. I feel like I’ve just been so in my head about everything and I’m just trying to work through it. I think that’s why I haven’t been posting as much because I am just overthinking everything and I just feel like my anxiety has taken control.
“I’m trying to push myself outside of that and post more and get back to what I was doing before. I feel like I haven’t been active because I’ve just been in my own head, in this kind of funky rut and we’re working through it.”
Spiranac said she has also taken a break from playing golf as she deals with these issues.
Spiranac went on to explain that she feels she is “actually really misunderstood” when asked about the biggest misconception about her.
“I almost felt bad for myself for such a long time and I was frustrated why people weren’t seeing me in a certain way or seeing me for me,” she said. “And then I realised that they’re only seeing what I’m showing.
“I can sit there and I can complain about it, or I can do something about it. And that’s showing more of myself and my personality.
“I think that I put so many walls up because this job can be draining sometimes and quite soul-sucking. I think I put barriers up to protect myself and started to morph and change into a person that I didn’t really recognise and that I didn’t see as well.
“This year it’s more about showing and less explaining and trying to defend myself and just being who I am.”
— with The New York Post
