‘SOMETIMES A VIDEO OF MY GOLF SWING WILL GET THREE MILLION VIEWS’
As the original Insta golf girl, Paige Spiranac has built a following which far outstrips the biggest names in golf. Her success owes as much to the flirtatious nature of her content as it does to finding a niche in a sport which has always taken itself too seriously...
Let’s go back to the beginning. What made you decide to give up your golf career and become a content creator, because not many people were doing that at the time?
I kind of fell into it accidentally. At that time, I was just putting golf content out on social media for fun. I had no money to pay for my golf career. But after this one tournament, someone wrote an article about me and it ended up going viral. Overnight I went from having no followers to close to 100,000 on Instagram. No one was really doing social media in the golf space, so there really wasn’t any road that I could follow. So, I was like, maybe I can kind of leverage this to get free golf balls and shoes, because I literally couldn’t afford anything. Some companies started reaching out and that’s essentially how it started. From there, I was able to grow it and I could see that this path seemed better suited to me, compared to playing golf professionally.
Was there an exact moment when you thought, I could do this for a living?
I don’t think there was an exact moment because even to this day, I’m still so shocked and blown away by the support that I get. But after my first year when I was playing around 25 tournaments, I barely broke even. Everything that I was doing on social media was going back into my golf career and I was burnt out. I was frustrated. It was just an emotional grind that I felt like I needed a break from. I switched over to social media full time in 2016/17, and that’s when it really took off because I was doing both about 50 percent. Once I put all my energy and attention into social media, that’s when I realised I can actually turn this into a profitable, successful business.
Just before that, in 2015, you made your LET debut in Dubai. A few players were quite dismissive about you receiving a sponsor’s invite. Was it difficult hearing that from your peers?
It was really difficult. I got the invitation to play about three months into my social media journey, so it was really overwhelming to handle all of this new-found attention. It was my very first professional event and I was so nervous. I didn’t want the spotlight on me but it turned into this huge media storm and again, I wasn’t prepared for it. The girls weren’t very welcoming and while I can see why they felt that way, I didn’t handle it very well.
Did that influence your decision to take a step back from tour life?
I think so. I got another sponsor’s invite to play at the Scottish Open. I made the cut there. But it was hard being in an environment where you didn’t feel welcomed. All of the outside eyes were on me and as we all know, golf is so mental and you need to have confidence. Even when I played well, I would check social media and thousands of people were telling me how bad I was and that I should quit. It just took a toll on me. I won a Cactus Tour event and I played really well. But my dad said that was the moment he knew that I wasn’t going to continue to play anymore. I should have been so happy and I wasn’t happy. The highs didn’t outweigh the lows and that was the reason why I stepped away. I just didn’t have the right mentality to play the game professionally.
You need to have quite a thick skin to be an Insta golf girl as well. Do you struggle with some of the negativity you get online?
Not so much now. It was much harder when I was playing golf because I cared so deeply about my game and wanting to play on the LPGA Tour. That was such a big goal of mine and that was my biggest failure, that I didn’t make it. It’s something I still struggle with every single day, feeling like a quitter and like I wasn’t good enough. But with social media, this Paige
Left: Paige was named the ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ in the Maxim 2022 Hot List, the first athlete ever to take top spot.
Renee persona is a bit of a character that I play. It’s still me, but it’s an exaggerated version of the sexiest, fun side. So, when people comment on the persona, I can brush it off pretty easily because it’s not really who I am.
You have spoken openly about some of the mental health challenges you’ve experienced over the years. Was that a conscious decision to let people in and see the real you?
Yeah, I’ve done the opposite of what everyone has told me. I remember I talked about wanting to quit after Dubai and how it really got to me. I got a call from my sponsor and they were like, “Yeah, never do that. Don’t talk about your emotions”. But I am glad that I didn’t take that advice and I’ve been able to be so open about my anxiety and the hard times in my life. When I started doing this in 2015, Instagram was a highlight reel and everyone only showed the good sides of their life. I was one of the first people to come out and say, “I’m not OK, I’m anxious! This is really hard.” A lot of people were able to relate to what I was talking about. I think that’s why I’ve been able to build such a loyal and amazing group of followers who have become my friends, because we’ve dealt with anxiety, depression and failure together. And even now we’re talking about body shaming.
In the past you’ve called out the sexism which exists in golf. How prevalent are those attitudes and do you see yourself as a voice for change?
They’re very prevalent. Even where I’m at in my career, I still feel a bit outcasted as a woman in a male-dominated industry. It’s difficult because you don’t have much support from other women because we are all fighting for our own spot. I think the golf industry is becoming a little bit more welcoming. We’re moving in the right direction, but we need to fight for it every single day. A lot of times I post things on social media to make a statement. I wear a lot of outfits just to prove that you can be a good golfer and wear what you want to wear. You don’t have to wear skirts down to your knees and a collar.
What does a typical day look like for you?
No two days are the same. I have so many great partners, like Swag Golf, Devant Towels and X-golf, who share the same common goal that I have, which is to make golf a little bit more fun. We create all this awesome content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, the podcast. I just came back from Missouri, like two days ago, but I was in Colorado, then New York, Virginia again, Missouri, back to
Colorado, Vegas, Utah, back to Colorado, and then New York again. And that’s two weeks for me!
That sounds exhausting! Do you still pinch yourself, seeing that you have more than 10 million followers across all your channels?
It’s insane. Sometimes I’ll post a golf swing and it will get three million views. It is absolutely crazy, but I love that I’m able to be successful at something that I’m so passionate about.
What would you put your success down to?
Taking time to talk to my followers and interact with them. I think that when people get to a certain level on social media, they forget how valuable and important the people who follow you are to the success of your career. I run all my social media channels myself and I try to respond to as many people as I can. That’s what makes the difference, taking that time to connect and create a bond.
Where do you go from here? What’s the grand masterplan?
We are creating a subscription site and it is basically everything and anything. We’ve just filmed a golf instruction series, starting with the very basics, which strips everything back and answers the questions people are scared to ask, like ‘Where do you get your clubs?’ ‘What do you do when you get to the clubhouse for the first time?’ We then move to the very basics of putting, short game and full swing. From there, it moves onto the next step and then the next step. It’s great for all skill levels. We want to do nutrition, fitness. I’ll be doing more live interactions, more daily content. I realised when I was talking about all these issues in my life and people were able to relate to them, I wasn’t able to provide any resources for them to get better. So this subscription programme is going to provide all that information. We’re shooting for an end of November, early December launch date.