Paige Spiranac has reprimanded PGA Tour pro Nate Lashley after his sexist response to her latest criticism of slow play.

Last year, the social media influencer took to Twitter after five-time PGA Tour champion and 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley took an age to line up his putt at the 2022 Match Play, calling the subsequent video, “nightmare fuel.”

Now, the 30-year-old has used the same platform to deliver her verdict on the widely-recognized slow play at this year’s Masters.

In a video posted on the 18th April, Paige evaluated the pace of play during Sunday’s crucial final round, commenting on the bizarre fact that the final two-ball were waiting on every hole of Sunday’s round.

“Honestly, I’ve seen paint dry faster than that round was finished,” she said before concluding, “Slow play is unsportsmanlike and a form of cheating. I don’t understand how this is not fixed yet. It’s easy — penalize them if they don’t hit it in 40 seconds. That’s it.”

Her evaluation of the pace of play follows general recognition of the problem, highlighted when both Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka showed their own disapproval.

As eventual champion Rahm cruised clear at the top, it was obvious that both Hovland and Koepka were affected by slow play, particularly that of Patrick Cantlay. So much so that the Norwegian took to finishing his holes without waiting for his playing partner, while the four-time major champ said, “Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow. Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”

However, 2019 Rocket Mortgage champion Nate Lashley appeared to fight back for the players.

In a reply to Spiranac, he stated, “I don’t like slow play at all but these courses are very difficult and there is a lot on the line,” before saying, “I don’t think most people are watching these videos to see what she has to say.”

40 seconds is a long time pic.twitter.com/BG0h6acRB8

— Paige Spiranac (@PaigeSpiranac) April 18, 2023

That hasn’t sat well with Paige, a fierce campaigner for the rights of women to feel comfortable however they dress.

In March, the former Cactus Tour winner told reporters “I am advocating for women to be able to be themselves without unfair judgment. “If that means they want to cover up [because] that’s how they feel comfortable, then f***** go for it,” and she was certainly never going to let Lashley get away with it.

Instead of responding on social media, Paige delivered her feelings on the Playing a Round with Paige podcast, where both she and co-presenter Samantha Marks discuss all manner of things golf.

Introducing the topic, Paige started, “Sam, before we get into some TNA,  speaking of slow play, I just have to make a little comment, real quickly, because I kept my mouth quiet on Twitter and since then, so, I tweeted about slow play and I basically said that the rule book says you have 40 seconds to hit your shot. If you take longer than 40 seconds, you should get penalised.”

“It’s in the rule books people,” she said. “So if you can’t do it, you should be penalised. It’s not that hard to comprehend… and Nate Lashley, he’s a PGA Tour player, he won at the Rocket Mortgage years ago (2019), he tweeted at me and he said ‘I don’t like slow play at all but these courses are very difficult and there’s a lot on the line.’ If, and he tagged me, Paige Spiranac would have played professionally at a higher level she would understand, but I don’t think most people are watching these videos to see what she has to say.”

Paige continued, “Next day, Matt Fitzpatrick comes out and he says ‘slow play is ridiculous, they need to do something about it’. They interviewed Patrick Cantlay and he said ‘I’m only slow because no one is doing anything about it’. There have been multiple players on the PGA Tour who have come out and said that this is a serious issue and they need to fix it.”

Having openly criticized the LPGA for their 2017 changes to their players’ dress codes, Paige again went to town.

“So for Nate Lashley to be honestly quite sexist about it and to come after me when this was not that hot of a take, everyone is in agreement that slow play needs to be fixed, so it’s not okay… and Nate Lashley, probably a slow player. He’s probably the problem.”

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