For Paige Spiranac, “imitation is the greatest form of flattery.”
When taking part in a wide-ranging “ask me anything” on Monday, the longtime golf influencer, 30, weighed in on “copycat golf girls” who have forged similar paths and exploded onto the social media scene.
“They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so, I am proud to be inspiration for all of these women, I mean, they’ve seen me be successful and they know that if they copy exactly what I’m doing, or follow in my footsteps and the exact path that I have created and built for myself, that they will also be successful,” Spiranac said in an Instagram Story.
“I mean that’s pretty cool, and it shows how powerful my brand has been that if they do copy everything they will also be successful.”
With nearly four million Instagram followers, Spiranac — who describes herself as the “OG Insta golf girl” — has built an online empire that now expands to an exclusive website, OnlyPaige.
And while the “Playing A Round” podcast host is supportive of others’ success, she has noticed carbon copies of her own content elsewhere.
“I will say that I do value creativity and I wish that it wasn’t copied exactly from the exact outfit to how I do my hair, to the captions, to how it’s shot, it would be nice if there was just a little bit of a difference,” Spiranac said.
“I think it’d be actually beneficial for them to be different and not have it be exactly, exactly, exactly the same.”
Sisters Isabelle and Kat Shee are among the golf influencers who have grown their followings in recent years, not to mention Claire Hogle, Bri Teresi and Grace Charis, who offered to caddie for Tiger Woods at the Par 3 contest during The Masters last week.
Charis, who boasts 1.1 million Instagram followers, frequently posts photos from the course on her Instagram page.
Recently, though, some fans pointed out how Charis’ Masters ensemble — a green jacket and a matching mini skirt — “looked familiar” as Spiranac modeled a similar style in 2021.
“When you have no good ideas so you have to copy others to try and get yourself out there,” one commenter wrote on Instagram.
Another posted, “I thought this looked familiar.”
In addition to her growing Instagram popularity, Charis also has an OnlyFans site.