Paige Spiranac is a young golfer whose been playing the game since childhood. However, she only started to garner so much attention in more recent years. After an article written about her, her following on social media skyrocketed. How could one article garner so much attention? Well, let’s find out how she’s attracting so many new golf fans.
Growing Up A Gymnast
Paige Spiranac had actually grown up a gymnast. Originally she wanted to become an Olympic gymnast, and had even been invited to train at Karolyi Ranch. Unfortunately, during training she broke her kneecap twice. And she was also bullied by her peers for her Olympian goal. Both things compounded and forced her to quit.
Five Titles
It didn’t take long for Paige to become a master of golf. She had already won five titles in the Colorado junior golf circuit. And in 2010 she went on to win the Connecticut Women’s Golf Association Junior Stroke Playback. It was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a long and successful career.
College Scholarships
Considering her great skill, it’s not too hard to imagine that multiple schools wanted to recruit Paige. One such school was the University of Arizona. She was even granted a scholarship. However, she didn’t stay there for the duration of her college career.
Starting Young
Paige Spiranac played a couple different sports as a young girl, golf included. That’s where her interest in the sport originated from. Her friends and family certainly weren’t surprised when she went on to play it on a collegiate level. She was on the women’s golf team at the University of Arizona and San Diego State University. And she did very well, winning multiple championships and titles.
Mountain West Conferences
From the 2012 to 2014 season, she brought home the All-Mountain West Conference title for SDSU. And later she helped the Aztecs women’s golf team win their first Mountain West Conference title. Despite her accomplishments though, the women’s golf community is rather small. So, at the time, she didn’t get a lot of attention. At least, that was how things started out.
A Personal Best
During the 2011-2012 season, when Paige was a freshman playing for the Arizona Wildcats, she shot a personal best score. She got a 73, not once, but twice! It was even more impressive that she had only played in three events. Although, the school just wasn’t a good fit for her. She ended up packing up and moving to San Diego State University after her first year in Arizona.
The Right Move
It turned out that she had made the right move going to SDSU. During the 2012-2013 season she won sixth=place in the Mountain West Championship honors. In the NCAA Central Regional Championships she got 19th. Her team also got first in All-Mountain West Honors and fifth for Cal Classic honors. And that was all just in her first year with SDSU.
Junior Year Honors
People were excited to see how well she’d in the 2012-2013 season and she certainly didn’t disappoint. She won the Second-Team All Mountain West Honors and had a top ten finish at the Mountain West Championship. She was a bright golfer, and showed that she’d have a bright career after graduation.
Senior Year
And it was in her final year at SDSU that she went out with a bang. In her final season she helped the Aztecs win their first Mountain West Conference Championship title. She called it “one of the absolute happiest moments of my life.” And as we all know, this was just the beginning.
Social Media And Trick Shots
Paige had started using her social media account, namely Instagram, to post videos of her performing trick shots while golfing. It was a short clip, but it gained her a massive audience. She ended up getting over two million followers, technically qualifying her to be a social media personality.
A Championship Win
Her time at college eventually came to end and she moved on to more professional circuits. In July 2015, people saw her playing in the Colorado Women’s Golf Association Match Play Championship. After a 35-hole title match against Brittany Fan, she was able to get the win nine holes under par. That was the same year her social media following had begun to swell.
The Year She Went Pro
She had been growing in popularity as an amateur golfer, but 2016 opened up a completely new can of worms. It was the year Paige finally became a professional golfer. She had come in ninth at the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open. She was a professional golfer now and she had won $1,750. Not much money in the grand scheme of things, but everybody has to start somewhere.
From 10,000 To 100,000
As said earlier, Paige began to have a massive uptick in her number of social media followers. And the person she has to thank for her new internet fame was a writer at Total Frat Move. They had written an article encouraging people to check out the golfer. And in just two days she from 10,000 followers to 100,000!
Other Social Media
While still new to the professional scene, she’s now become a huge social media personality and a big face for women’s golf. Not only does she have an Instagram, but a Twitter account as well. She usually uses it to promote her other business venture, including a podcast. And what else would the podcast be about other than golf?
Camera Shy
While active on social media, promoting her favorite sport (and her podcast), and teaching many golf tips, she’s actually camera shy. To get over this, she tried launching her own YouTube channel. She wanted to get over her fear of sharing her thoughts with strangers on the internet. And given how much she enjoys just talking about golf, it was a necessary roadblock to get past.
CyberSmile And Anti-Bullying
And it was after getting over her camera shyness that she started posting selfies of herself on social media. She became involved in groups like CyberSmile, an anti-bullying group. A victim of bullying, herself, it makes complete sense she’d want to prevent people from going through what she did. In the group, she opens up about her experiences with bullies and lower self-esteem to help people deal with the same issues.
Sponsors
CyberSmile is actually one of Paige’s sponsors. And not just them, but she’s also sponsored by Philip Stein Watches, Mizzen + Main, Parsons Xtreme Golf, and 18Birdies. Additionally, she’s under contract with Golf Digest to model clothing for their website. The partnership and her “non-traditional golf attire” brought in a high amount of target to said website. This is possibly what put her on Sports Illustrated’s radar.
The Cover Of Sports Illustrated
It’s probably her crowning achievement as far as sponsorships go. She not only modeled for Sports Illustrated, she was on the cover! In 2018, she made an appearance holding her sport’s equipment, being the first female athlete to actually do so on the cover.
Paige Writes A Column For Golf Magazine
That same year, Paige also took up a writing job. Writing for the aforementioned Golf Magazine, she began writing a monthly column. She’s still more focused on playing the sport than writing it, but it’s nice to know how invested she is in every aspect of the game. She’s truly doing everything and anything to elevate herself and the game that she loves.
