Hailey Ostrom, one of the most recognizable golf influencers today, has received an invitation from one of the biggest golf creator events in the world. She can now fulfill her lost LPGA dream. She confirmed her participation in the event as she opened up about her struggles in an emotional post.

“Just thinking about a young Hailey dreaming of making it on the LPGA and then making the tough decision to give up that dream, trust God’s plan, and try something different. Now I’m competing in a different space for a larger purse. Just feeling very grateful,” she wrote on Instagram.

Ostrom will be in Season 2 of the Internet Invitational, the golf creator tournament run by Barstool Sports and Bob Does Sports. She was not a part of the event last year in Season 1.

When Ostrom moved to Scottsdale, she had to work three jobs to fund her professional golf career. She had no contacts and very little money. She balanced her jobs while competing on the Cactus Tour. In fact, she worked on a beverage cart at Papago Golf Course to cover the entry fees and even organized a fundraiser tournament to stay afloat.

Ostrom attended her first LPGA qualifying school in 2018 and earned conditional status for the Symetra Tour, a developmental circuit one step below the LPGA, but fell short of an LPGA card. Despite all the backlash, she pivoted and built her own golf platform. Now, having been invited to the event with a prize purse higher than the LPGA itself, she can’t help but feel she has reached more than her goals.

The Internet Invitational has seen a major jump in prize purse since Season 1, which had a prize of only $1 million. This year, it is close to $4 million. It’s a huge jump, and Ostrom is more than happy about it.

“The average LPGA event purse is approximately $3.7 million. As a girl who chased the tour for years, it blows my mind that I’ll be competing for more than that in this tournament. Golf is so cool. Young Hailey would be so proud,” she tweeted.

Shortly after turning pro in 2018, she got a call from Golf Channel executives and landed a spot on their competition series, Shotmakers, where her driver shots into the “trench” helped her team survive elimination rounds all the way to the finals. She also featured as a special guest on Driver vs. Driver 2, testing drivers for Wilson Golf. TV appearances on Shotmakers and Driver vs. Driver 2 gave her visibility to land Nike and other sponsors. Her content revolves around documenting her training, travels, and daily life online. She now sits close to two million followers across platforms, and the brand deals and the opportunities she has created have replaced the tour income she once dreamed of.

Hailey Ostrom called out the Internet Invitational last year

“There are way too many amazing female golfers in this space to be making up 6% of the field,” said Ostrom, venting her frustration for Season 1 field having only three women among 48 spots. “I’ve never been invited to a single Creator Classic event, so I’m sure this is ruining my future chances, but I have to stand up for women in the golf space.”

The Creator Classic is the PGA Tour’s own influencer competition. The Tour has run multiple event series throughout 2025, featuring names like Grant Horvath, Luke Koon, and Paige Spiranac. Spiranac was also one of the three women in the Season 1 Internet Invitational field last year.

The two also share more than that moment. Spiranac also failed to earn her LPGA Tour card and described the pivot into content creation as a necessity, saying she had to pave that path entirely on her own with no blueprint to follow. Like Ostrom, she now has four million followers on Instagram. Both of them are central figures in the creator golf circuit that has given the professional backgrounds a stage the two never offered them.