Paige Spiranac is gradually adding an element from her past into her present golf game.
In a candid post shared Sunday on X, the longtime golf influencer revealed how she’s keeping score on her rounds again after previously judging her self-worth based on her results on the course.
“I played junior golf, college golf and a year professionally. After that stretch I mentally couldn’t handle playing golf and especially keeping score. 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,” the 31-year-old Spiranac wrote.
She concluded the post by sharing a photo of herself at Austin Country Club, the previous site of the WGC Match Play Championship, which she dubbed “such a fun track!”
“I’ll keep you posted here on my journey!” Spiranac exclaimed. “This round at Austin CC I shot a 73.”
Spiranac played golf at the University of Arizona and San Diego State before turning pro.
The social media juggernaut has long been open about struggling in the sport, sharing on a 2023 episode of her “Playing A Round” podcast how she felt “mentally exhausted” when on the pro circuit.
“I did one year of playing golf professionally and I was just mentally exhausted. In golf, you fail more than you succeed and I was doing that in the public eye. Everyone was telling me, ‘You should quit. You should give up. You’re not good,'” Spiranac said.
“All of these things, and I was already dealing with these mental issues of years and years and years of trying so hard and coming up short and I just broke. I honestly cracked. I broke and I just stopped. I said ‘Maybe I’ll go back,’ and I’ve never gone back to try and play golf professionally again.”
A particularly painful moment for Spiranac came after missing the cut at the 2016 Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, when she teared up during a press conference and addressed the cruel commentary she received from trolls.
Though she has moved on from that agonizing ordeal, Spiranac noted in 2023 there are some feelings she can’t shake off.
“It keeps me up at night to be honest because I feel like a failure and it’s really difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that I never made it — not as a gymnast, not as a tennis player, not as a golfer. It’s been hard. It’s really hard because I felt like I could do it and there was just something that was missing,” she said.
“But instead of sitting down and feeling sorry for myself, I picked myself back up and threw myself into my media work. My background of just grinding, hard work has really helped me in my media career, because I work so incredibly hard — and the difference is here, the harder I work, the more successful I’ve become and I think that’s why it’s been a more fulfilling journey for me than professional golf… the outcome is positive.”
Regarded as one of the most well-known golf influencers, Spiranac has amassed more than four million followers on Instagram, where she regularly posts golf instruction videos.
She is also a year removed from the launch of her exclusive content site, Only Paige.
