Paige Spiranac has upgraded. “Very exciting news I’m finally able to share! After lots of hard work I’m happy to announce I’ve joined Passes.com!,” the former All-Mountain West Conference golfer announced, in a photo accompanying images of her in workout gear. “As a lot of you know I had my own subscription site OnlyPaige but wanted to add in more features to enhance the user experience and found that Passes had everything I wanted and more. It’s bigger and better than anything I’ve done before! You have access to never before seen pictures and videos, can speak with me directly in DMs, live streaming anytime/anywhere, and so much more! …Come chat with me 🥰.” (Here’s the link to it.) How does she stay so fit? Here’s how.
“It was kind of an interesting story,” she told WKYC. “I don’t come from a big golf family, and that’s how most kids get into it because their parents are obsessed with it. And I was actually a competitive gymnast first and had a couple really bad injuries. And so I was looking for a sport that I’d be good at because again—sports was just such a big part of our family dynamic—and they always said, you need to focus in on something that you want to do. And sports was always at the forefront. And so after gymnastics I was like, what could I be good at? We brought my aunt out, she put me through some drills and tennis for a bootcamp of two days and I was like, I can’t do this. It’s too much running after gymnastics. And my dad was like, let’s just go out and hit some golf balls on the range. And I fell in love with it instantly and have never looked back.”
She “had a really good junior golf career, played in college, and then I played one year professionally. And while I was doing that, I kind of blew up on social media, just kind of happened. And so I was doing both and I really couldn’t do both. And so I finally decided I’m going to focus on social media and not play golf professionally anymore, which was now looking back the best decision I could have made,” she told WKYC.
“I played junior golf, college golf and a year professionally. After that stretch I mentally couldn’t handle playing golf and especially keeping score,” she Tweeted this year. “I equated my score to my self worth. I know it sounds silly but competitive golf really beat me up emotionally. But I’ve found that passion again! I’ve started tracking my scores and grinding on my game. I’ll keep you posted here on my journey! This round at Austin CC I shot a 73. Such a fun track!”
“I was a gymnast before I switched into golf,” she told Sports Illustrated. “I was so comfortable wearing spandex and very little of it because that’s just what you wear when you’re wearing a leotard and you’re competing. Â “When I switched into golf, we were struggling a little bit financially, and so I didn’t have the luxury to go out and buy a whole new golf-appropriate wardrobe. And so, I wore what was in my closet, which was workout clothes. That’s just how I learned to play the game.”
Spiranac was a champion gymnast before she played golf. “Gymnastics prepares you really well for something like golf,” she told Golf Digest. “I was doing it for seven hours a day, and I really learned body awareness and mental toughness. I just transferred those lessons and habits to golf. Golf is harder than gymnastics. You know how I know that? I could do a double backflip like it was nothing. But I can easily miss a three-footer.”
Spiranac found that was is “really well suited for social media because when I first started doing this, no one was really utilizing social media in the golf space,” she told WKYC. “And so I was the first to do this and it was out of necessity. I needed clubs, I need balls, I needed a place to practice. And so I was using my platform to be able to market and advertise for these companies so I could just get anything free. At the moment, I was really struggling financially and after that it just kept growing and it was like a snowball and I kept building and have a really great team around me. It’s been interesting because no one has done this before. So we are paving this path and it’s really cool to see all of these golf influencers come up behind me and have this blueprint that we just kind of built and came up with. And so it’s been an amazing eight years of doing this.”
Her favorite golfer? “I’m unfortunately not playing as much, but everyone has to say Tiger Woods,” she told Sports Illustrated. “We wouldn’t be where we are without Tiger. He is so fun to watch the shots that he hits. And again, just his passion and competitiveness is something that we’ve never seen before. And I would say now current players, there are so many really amazing players, it’s hard to pick, but I love Max Homa. I love how he incorporates social media into his job because most professional athletes are a little bit nervous to get all in on social media and he was one of the first to really do it in golf and he has a massive loyal fan base and playing some great golf. And so I love watching what he’s doing.”
Spiranac is constantly trying to prove herself. “I don’t think a lot of people take me seriously and that’s what hurts the most because I’m grinding every single day to be better,” he told Colorado AvidGolfer. “I’m not overconfident, but my mentality is that I want to prove myself—and I think that’s more powerful. If I didn’t have that mentality, I probably would have quit by now.”
Spiranac is not interested in a party lifestyle. “I’m introverted, and all my friends make fun of me because all I do is work out and play golf,” she told Golf Digest. “I’m a grandma: stay in most nights and asleep by 9:30. One more thing about how I dress: Most guys have no idea how freaking comfortable yoga pants are.”
Spiranac wants people to lighten up when it comes to golf. “I feel like when I’m on the golf course I respect the game,” she told Colorado AvidGolfer. “I think that’s what you need to preserve with golf, the sportsmanship. It’s not what I wear. It’s not the fact that I’m having fun—I mean, seeing me have fun on the golf course, is that so wrong? I think people need to have more fun, and that’s why golf is struggling right now. The younger generation wants to go out on the course and have fun, but they’re criticized for not wearing nice pants and a polo.”
As for why she wears what she wants to: “I consider myself an athlete,” she told Sports Illustrated. “I consider people who play golf, which is a hot take to some athletes who play golf: Why don’t we dress like athletes? They’re out there, poor Lucas Glover and he’s the unbreathable pants sweating like crazy. And I’m like, let’s dress like athletes. And so that was always my mindset when I got into golf and it really rubbed people the wrong way, which is shocking. Shocking. But I mean, they’ll have really intense discussions over if they should wear shorts or pants or a blade collar, a real collar. And I’m out here just in tank tops and spandex and people are like, what are you doing? But I love it. And I think we’re starting to see that change and fashion is such a big part of growing the game and it’s moving in the right direction.”