Paige Spiranac’s reference of Tiger Woods leaving scratch golfers in the dust goes viral

Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for ACM

Paige Spiranac reminded her followers that thinking they could hang with PGA Tour players would sadly be mistaken.

Paige Spiranac isn’t afraid to speak her mind. It’s one of the biggest parts of her brand. One of her latest takes shows she knows golf and the reality of playing professionally. She tweeted a graphic referencing a tweet from Lou Stagner, a golf stat extraordinaire, about Tiger Wood’s handicap in his prime.

In 2008, Woods had a +9.4 handicap, and with tour conditions, it was around +11 or +12, which is mind-boggling. Very few people beat him during that time of his career. Stagner’s tweet got the attention of Spiranac, who causally reminded her 879.3k followers they aren’t nearly as good as they think.

If a scratch golfer wanted to take on the challenge of playing Woods, they would need at least four strokes per side. She’s calling out the scratch golfers who think they can play on the PGA Tour, but it takes so much more than being a scratch to survive on Tour.

These PGA Tour players aren’t scratch golfers. Most PGA Tour guys don’t keep a handicap because the handicap system is designed for the amateur game. Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey do at Whisper Rock in Arizona, but most don’t because they’re not always turning in their scores, per GolfMonthly.

This system allows amateur players to compete against each other on a level playing field. In 2020, if PGA Tour players kept a handicap, on average, it would be +5.4, per Stagner.

These top players in the world are human too, and they have days where an 80 is what they score. However, those bad days are few and far between. Spiranac keeps it real with the countless people commenting and thinking they could even compete with a PGA Tour player.