How Paige Spiranac became one of golf's biggest names – after she retired

She may be the biggest name in women's golf, but it's fair to say Paige Spirinac's career really only took shape once she stepped away from life as a professional golfer. Let's take a look back at her unique journey.

In fact, since she prematurely stepped away from the sport at just 23 years old, she's become a top-level influencer – just on Instagram alone she has more than 4 million followers.

Picture: Instagram (@_paige.renee)

While getting chosen as the world's sexiest woman in 2022 by Maxim magazine has a lot to do with that, there's more to Spirinac's story than just good looks.

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It all began in March 1993, when Paige Spiranac was born into a family of sports fanatics. Her father was a Pittsburgh Panthers University football player, and her mother was a professional ballet dancer.

But that wasn't all, her older sister, Lexie, was granted a track and field Stanford scholarship; whilst her aunt, Bonnie Gadusek, was a professional tennis player, as Essentially Sports reported. It seemed that sports were destined to play a huge role in Spiranac's life.

As Sportskeeda reported, her first choice was to do gymnastics, but a double injury on her kneecap forced her to quit her Olympic dream at the age of 12. It was a huge blow given the promise she had shown in the sport.

Her gymnastics training system was not as kind to her, however, and she was bullied by teammates and competitors. In the same interview, she told: "The girls were vicious. They would spit in my drink. I remember I brought in cake for my birthday, and they all threw it out in front of me."

After gymnastics, she tried her hand at tennis with the help of her aunt, Bonnie Gadusek —who got to number ten on the WTA list in 1985. But after just two weeks, she realized tennis wasn't for her.

One day, Paige Spiranac accompanied her father to a golf course, and immediately fell in love with the sport.

In a short amount of time, the young girl made it to the top 20 junior female golf players in the world and was granted a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona. But college changed everything, especially, her career in golf.

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As she explained to Maxim magazine in 2022: "I think I had a better junior golf career than I did a college career. I didn't live up to the expectations I had, or my coaches had. I'm athletically gifted and physically gifted and everyone could see I was talented. But mentally I didn't have enough time to develop…"

Paige Spiranac decided to transfer to San Diego State University. As she recalls: "It was my senior year, and I said I don't have to play golf anymore. And it was the best feeling ever. Then I took two weeks off and missed it so much."

But luckily, she didn't quit golf. In 2015, a victory in the Colorado Golf Association Match Play Championship (finishing nine strokes under par), led Dan Register, editor of the Total Frat Move, to write an essay about the golfer that read a lot more like a love letter than anything else. The piece went viral almost immediately.

Spiranac's suddenly found herself reciaving a lot of social media attention: "That's what started my whole career. I went from 500 followers to 100,000 overnight. My life changed completely in the blink of an eye," she told Maxim.

Spiranac started receiving hundreds of partnership offers and a lot of media attention. The then-22-year-old girl jumped into the opportunity that golf had just opened up for her.

In 2015, Paige Spiranac was invited to her first professional tournament: the Ladies European Tour in Dubai. But the tournament didn't go very well, and, although Paige hasn't officially retired, she hasn't competed since 2016.

Despite putting aside her professional golf career, Spiranac is still a worldwide golf star and has partnered up with many brands related to her sport: Club Champion, X-Golf simulator, Shot Scope, and premium sportswear company, Dynamic Brands.

Picture: Instagram (@_paige.renee)

On top of everything else, she hosts a successful podcast called 'Playing A Round with Paige', where the influencer talks about sports, golf, and life in general.

Spirinac is the first to admit that her life has taken an unconventional turn: "If you had told me senior year of college, that my life would take this path, I would have laughed in your face. I never expected any of this to happen, but I'm so grateful that it did," she told Maxim.

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But she is not ashamed of what she has become and is happy to call herself an influencer. "I'm really able to love who I am and what I'm doing through content creation and being an influencer. So, I'm happy with how everything turned out. I wish I played golf at a higher level and accomplished more, but I wouldn't trade this for the world."