Who is Paige Spiranac?
Paige Spiranac is well-known for being a professional golfer as well as being a social media personality. She was born in 1993 and grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, to an athletic family of Croatian origin.
Paige Spiranac has made a name for herself as one of the game’s biggest stars and now has over two million followers on her Instagram account. Many people are left wondering, what’s her ultimate goal? Paige just wants to be taken seriously as a golfer and sports ambassador.
Her Athletic Background
As a child, Paige Spiranac was an exceptional gymnast. She was training daily with her sights set firmly on future Olympics, but she suffered a knee injury that eventually forced her out of the sport. So how good was she exactly in gymnastics?
In spite of her young age, it was her talent and ability that allowed her to skip from level six to the Elites, earning an invitation from Karolyi Ranch – the training center for the USA’s Olympic gymnastics feeder system.
A New Sport
It was while she was recovering from her injury at the age of 12, that Paige decided it was time to retire from gymnastics, but she still wanted to try her hand at professional sports. After experimenting in different sports, she eventually fell in love with the game of golf.
Even in the early years of her golf career, it became apparent that she had a knack for it, as she won five tournaments out of seven on Colorado’s junior golf circuit, including the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play.
The Beginning of her Journey
This was the beginning of her journey to become one of the top-20 junior players in the world, a top-five college recruit, two-time West Region Player of the Year as well as first-team All-American as a member of the Future Collegians World Tour.
Paige Spiranac continued to play golf while studying at San Diego State University. While in University, she won the All-Mountain West Conference honors during the 2012-2014 seasons and led the Aztecs to their first Mountain West Conference Championship.
Anti-Bullying
One of the fantastic things she has accomplished with her influence is to establish herself as an anti-bullying personality. She references being bullied often as a youth and how it has shaped her current career and lifestyle. Paige is passionate about making a change when it comes to stopping bullying, primarily online and cyberbullying.
She has become an official ambassador for The Cybersmile Foundation. She often speaks openly about her personal experiences when it comes to being bullied throughout her childhood, college, and golf career.
Talent and Good Looks
Paige is still fresh on the golf scene, and because of her good looks, she has caught the attention of many – whether it’s because of her talent or her appearance, we’re not sure; maybe it’s a combination of the two.
Many of her critics have suggested that her appearance is tokenistic. She originally started her Instagram account to post trick shot videos, but now she’s got a much bigger audience. More recently, Paige announced she’s joining GOLF magazine and GOLF.com as a contributor.
Paige Spiranac: Net Worth
Paige Spiranac maintains a strong social media presence, adding to her annual finances. According to First Sportz, the former golf pro has an estimated net worth of $3 million. Her earnings through her social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube provide for the maximum of her net worth along with her significant sponsorships.
Paige Spiranac has partnered deals with big brands such as Callaway Golf, Lululemon, BETSPERTS, Octagon, PointsBet, Dynamic Brands, 18Birdies, Cybersmile, Shot Scope, Club Champion, Swag, X-Golf, LA Golf, and many more.
Apart from endorsements and social media, she also generates a huge chunk of her income from her modeling career. The diva has been featured in magazines such as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and Golf Digest.
She also has her own YouTube channel which is growing rapidly. Her channel has around 336K subscribers and the count is just growing as days go by. She turned to the world of entertainment in 2016 and has since emerged as the face of female golf, despite having retired professionally.
Paige Spiranac: Social media
Paige Spiranac boasts 3.8 million followers on her Instagram. She uses the same platform for her brand partnerships and sponsorship deals. She often uses her Twitter handle to stay connected with her fans. Known for her quirky comments on the ongoings of the golf world, she has 890.2K followers on Twitter.
Spiranac is also a YouTuber with 336K subscribers. Keeping up with the upcoming trends, Paige also hosts a podcast called Playing A Round With Paige Renee, where she speaks about all things golf and more.
At the beginning of 2023, she also launched her subscription-based venture, known as “OnlyPaige” wherein the fans will have to purchase subscriptions to access exclusive content such as golf instructions, marches, and other relevant content.
“I’m Not a Gimmick”
On her blog and Instagram page, she dishes out physical fitness and health tips as well as golf strategy and swing tips. When people have criticized her for being so active on social media, she responded, “When it comes to the golf world, I know that there are people that might see me as a publicity gimmick,” she says.
“I don’t think I am, and I know that If I was a guy and I had the same social following, people wouldn’t call it a gimmick. They’d say it was great.”
Breaking Convention
It was at the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament in 2015 when promoters broke with convention by hiring her as the first woman to introduce the players and start the tournament.
She was only 24 years old at the time, and no one seemed upset or concerned that she was the first woman to take the microphone in place of the usual European Tour man. It seemed like things were progressing in the golf industry and it was after this appearance, people started to take notice of her.
The Core of Her Story
Her coming into view in Dubai has been the core of Spiranac’s story. As a player of humble status in the United States, invitations and the request to play in the Ladies European Tour events in 2015 and 2016 triggered global headlines.
While she isn’t a consistent player on the LPGA or other professional circuits, she has played in professional golf tournaments and does so somewhat regularly. She partners with brands like Callaway, Descente, Topgolf, Golf Digest, and TheCHIVE on media projects.
Unfair Treatment
Paige often has to defend her position in the sport, explaining, “People like to think I got where I am because of how I look or the clothes that I wear. That’s unfair to all of my accomplishments and me. I don’t know any other professional golfer that does as much community service as me.
“For people to comment: ‘You only show some cleavage, that’s why you have what you have,’ is uncalled for. That’s the treatment that we as women have to face every day, and I see it a lot in golf.”
Sports Illustrated
Among her successes, Paige was selected to appear in the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, a huge honor for any athlete or model! Despite her triumphs, she still faces a lot of criticism.
“I always felt like I never belonged and it is tough because I am a good player, I know what to do, but I still don’t like going to new clubs because I am worried someone will comment and say my skirt is too short or I don’t have a collar,” she added. “Why should that matter?”
Everyday Golfers
The feeling among her fellow and former pro golfers seems to be that she was given opportunities inconsistent with her talent. Spiranac is well aware of dismissive attitudes towards her in the upper ranks of women’s golf.
“Life is great for them on tour, and that’s awesome, but we need to think about everyday golfers.” Paige’s passion for growing the game and stamping out discrimination and bullying is impressive. Whether she can prompt any transformation, she believes fundamental changes remain to be seen.
Self-Esteem Issues
Paige loves her parents but confessed that there was a time that she was intimidated by them. From a young age, they instilled in Paige the notion of always aspiring to be your absolute best, and she took that advice to heart as she pushed herself to the limit instead of enjoying typical childhood experiences.
The pressure of being a child gymnast exacerbated Paige’s self-esteem issues. Admittedly, it was this same pressure from her parents that gave her the drive and motivation to succeed and eventually become a professional golfer.
It’s a Fantastic Sport
Why all the furor over her Instagram feed? “Because I look different than the average golfer, maybe? I dress differently than most golfers, and I don’t follow convention when it comes to what golf is supposed to be. I think it is a fantastic sport, but I believe there is a specific point of view that needs to change.”
“I think it needs to become more inclusive, more forward-thinking. For me to speak out about that, it does bring on more hate, but it also starts a conversation, and I can create change.”
Kournikova of Golf
She is considered the “Kournikova of golf,” apart from this, she revealed another dark side of being too bold in the spotlight. She revealed that her ex-boyfriend shared some of her intimate photos with his friends.
She received messages about her nude photos which spiraled Paige into a depression and made a statement through her podcast, Playing A Round:”People always warn you not to take this type of photos. The idea might sound fun and spontaneous, but is it worth the risk?”
YouTube
Paige also has a YouTube channel, she posts weekly videos discussing anything from golf tips to popular culture, or even her personal goals in golf. It’s an inspiring and entertaining look into the world around professional golf.
Her golf tips range from in-depth, professional lessons where she is aiming to help consistent golfers fine-tune individual parts of their game. Her video playlists go as far back as the introductory basics to golf, designed to be watched by beginners just getting into the game.
So What Happened?
In her early golf career, Paige won five tournaments in seven tries on Colorado’s junior golf circuit, including the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play. She earned a spot in the top-20 junior player rankings in the world, a top-5 college recruit, and a two-time West Region Player of the Year and first-team All-American as a member of the Future Collegians World Tour.
Her efforts as a junior earned her a scholarship to the University of Arizona. If we remember correctly, she graduated from San Diego State University…so what happened?
A Change of Environment
After her freshman year she decided to leave the University of Arizona, so Paige transferred to San Diego State for her sophomore year, seeking a change of environment. Paige only competed in three events for the Arizona Wildcats during her time there, this was in the season of 2011-2012.
The events included the Northwestern University Women’s Tournament and the Wildcat Invitational. Her best score of that season was a 73, which she reached twice during the women’s tournament.
Significant Improvement
It seems that her move was a change for the better as in her sophomore year, her game saw significant improvement. In the 2012–2013 season, she earned First-Team All-Mountain West honors, finished in fifth-place at the Cal Classic, at sixth at the Mountain West Championship, and nineteenth at the NCAA Central Regional Championships.
At this time, we can already see Paige’s steady rise to prominence as a professional athlete, and her rapid social media fame soon garnered her a few endorsements with sponsors, like Callaway Golf.
The Best Time of Her Life
Following her sophomore year, exciting things were expected for Paige and the Aztecs – but it was hard to top the fantastic success she had in her sophomore year. Her junior season in 2013–2014 resulted in Second-Team All-Mountain West Honors, together with a top ten finish at the Mountain West Championship.
Her senior season with the Aztecs’ first Mountain West Conference Championship saw her ending her time at college, which she described as “one of the best times of my life.”
Earning Fans
It was in her senior year, a website by the name of Total Frat Move, encouraged fans to check out Spiranac’s trick shot golf videos. Her following went up from 10,000 to over 100,000 in a matter of days.
It was this explosion on social media that led to her being invited to play in the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic in 2015. She may have missed the cut, but the online attention resulted in many sponsorship deals. Golf Digest said that most of Spiranac’s fans are males in the age range of 15 to 30.
Competing
The Colorado Golf Association hosted its annual Colorado Women’s Golf Association Match Play Championship In July 2015. In a 35-hole title match against Brittany Fan of the University of Colorado Boulder, Paige finished nine holes under par. Her 2016 golfing season saw her finishing the season with $8,010 in winnings and another invitation to Dubai.
Paige competed in the 2016 Colorado Women’s Open, placing ninth at one-under-par and earning $1,750. It’s interesting to think about winning that little in a professional sports tournament, but this was just the start of her career.
Pro Sports
When we think of pro sports or amateur sports, we’re thinking either no prize money or several thousands of dollars. But Paige has currently signed deals with 18Birdies, Mizzen + Main, and Philip Stein Watches. She has also been featured in magazines such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition as well as Golf Digest.
Nowadays, she’s writing a monthly column in Golf magazine. Her golf career is still evolving, but we likely won’t see her on a golf tour again…
Playing A Round
Paige Spiranac was recently speaking on her own podcast Playing A Round when she opened up about her experience of dating and how she was so desperate to be liked, she used to be okay with it all.
Spiranac discussed how men would ask her out and would then suggest going to a driving range to hit some balls. What seemed like an incidental date suggestion at first then led to her basically giving the ‘date’ an hour-long free lesson to make him become a better player.
An Athletic Family
Paige grew up in an athletic and competitive family. Her father, Dan, was a member of the 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers national championship college football team, and her mother, Annette, was a professional ballerina.
Her older sister Lexie also received a college athletic scholarship, competing on Stanford’s track team. Since she was little, Paige’s parents encouraged her to participate in sports. Paige was a sheltered child, as her parents decided to homeschool her from fourth grade, she didn’t have many friends her age growing up.
A Male-Dominated Game
Paige has been interviewed about her thoughts on being a woman in professional golf and added, “I’m just trying to get others to feel more comfortable because I know for a long time I wasn’t alone feeling that way.”
“That’s why people are not getting into golf. It’s such a male-dominated game, it has been around for so long. There are traditions, and people want their traditions to change. When a woman comes in wearing leggings instead of trousers, it is like the world is ending.”