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Paige Spiranac once had a promising professional golf career ahead of her.
She led her alma mater, San Diego State University, to its first ever conference title while in college.
But ultimately the pressure and rigors of pro golf proved too much.
“From the first golf ball I ever hit, I dedicated everything I had to being a pro golfer,” Spiranac revealed on her Playing A Round With Paige podcast this week.
“I was homeschooled. I practiced every single day, morning until night. It was my only goal. I was a highly ranked junior golfer and then at 18 I had to make the decision to go to college or turn pro.”
“So many growing pains,” Paige explained. “I was burnt out of, I wouldn’t say golf, just dedicating my life to something and not really seeing the results. With gymnastics, it was hard because I was fighting injuries and then with golf — golf is such an interesting sport because you can work out, eat right, practice and still not achieve your goals. That was something for me that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.
“It also went against everything that my parents ever told me because I come from two athletes. They always said, ‘If you put the work in and you dedicate your life to something, you will be successful.’ But that just wasn’t happening with golf and I was driving myself crazy because I felt like I should be achieving at a much higher level. … I had everything to be a world class golfer, but I just couldn’t put it together and I didn’t know why. It was driving me actually insane.”
Spiranac didn’t leave the world of golf though.
Instead, she carved out an immensely successful career as a golf influencer.
And she went viral yet again on Monday.
Spiranac posted a video of herself playing a hole at Alpine Country Club and offering tips. It quickly garnered over 25 thousand likes. But as is often the case, it wasn’t the golf tips that caught her followers’ attention.
“Poor girl thinking we’re here to learn golf…,” one commenter said.
“Don’t ask me the color of anything,” said another.
It isn’t the pro golf career Spiranac once envisioned. But it’s still a pretty good life.