Dubai: Four-time Major winner Laura Davies has thrown her support behind social media butterfly Paige Spiranac ahead of Wednesday’s Omega Dubai Ladies Masters at Emirates Golf Club.
Spiranac, 22, from Scottsdale, Arizona, has been granted an invite to make her professional debut at the Ladies European Tour (LET) season-ender. But she is being billed more for her half-a-million-strong social media following and less for her relatively unproven ability to play golf on the biggest stage despite some provincial success at college and junior level.
The American even alluded to perceived criticism of her being selected for an invite based on her looks over her ability in her pre-event press conference.
But Davies, 52, a usually no-nonsense veteran on Tour, who boasts a record seven LET Order of Merit titles, welcomed the youngster and said she deserves her chance. “I don’t know her from a bar of soap, I really don’t,” said Davies. “I’ve obviously heard what some of the other players have said but I’ve not met her. I saw her last night at the party but I didn’t speak to her. Good luck to her.
“Everyone deserves a chance and if she’s a good player, then I think it’s great she’s here. If she’s here for any reason other than [the fact that] she’s a great golfer, then it’s a little bit pointless.
“But we have to give her a chance. She might go and win the tournament and then it’s the best decision ever made. Everyone deserves that chance and I wish her all the best this week.”
Of Davies’ own take on social media, she added: “I’m old-fashioned. I don’t like tweeting, I don’t like Facebook. I’ve got a Facebook account but I’ve never touched it.
“Someone set that up for me and thought it would be funny, so that’s that. The Twitter one, maybe I send one or two Tweets a year or whatever you call it. But that thing has passed me by. I don’t really enjoy that side of it but I know a lot of people get so much pleasure out of it, and if it’s helping the women’s tour, then I’m all for it.
“I’ve been told by a few people that I should do it more, but that ship’s sailed. I can’t get into it at all. Obviously it’s a very important part of modern day life and sport, so, yeah, if they want to do it, let them do it, but I won’t be doing it.”
