A Confident Golfer
When it comes to describing Paige, we think she herself has summarized it best. She describes herself as “a rising golf talent, media personality, and online influencer who’s on a mission to show the world how much fun golf can be.” They say if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life, and Paige has truly lived up to that.
Fighting For A Cause
Not only has Paige become a successful golfer and social media star, she has used her platform for a great purpose. She has been very vocal about being anti-bullying, especially cyber bullying. She said that she was bullied as a child and she wants to help others avoid being treated the way she was.
Olympic Hopes, Dashed
When Paige was growing up, she was a talented elite gymnast. She had grand dreams of reaching the Olympics and trained diligently every day. Sadly, those dreams were dashed when a knee injury forced her to stop participating in gymnastics. However, this is when she turned to golfing instead.
Success From Early On
After transition to golf at a young age, she began to see success. After an impressive junior gold career, she enrolled at San Diego State University. There she became the captain of the women’s golf team and was also a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. How did she have time for it all?
Social Media Star
When Paige reached her senior year of college, she began to notice that her Instagram account began amassing a large following, especially in the golfing world. She also realized that her YouTube channel was also making the rounds in the golf world. After graduating, Paige realized that she could break into golf professionally.
Other Projects
While Paige is a talented golfer, she does not consistently play in the LPGA or any other professional golf circuits. However, she actively participates in professional golf tournaments. She has also teamed up with brands such as Descente, Callaway, Topgolf, Golf Digest, and TheChive on many media and entertainment projects.
Fitness Inspiration
As a talented athlete, Paige is an inspiration to all. She has created a blog where she shares fitness related advice and health tips. Don’t worry – she hasn’t strayed from her roots! She also shares her pro tips on golf strategy as well as swing tips.
Cybersmile Foundation Ambassador
One of the projects that Paige is most dedicated to is fighting bullying, particularly cyberbullying and online hate, which she has experienced herself first hand. She became an official ambassador for the Cybersmile Foundation and frequently speaks about her own experiences of being bullied throught her life.
Empowering Women
Not only is she dedicated to ending bullying, but Paige is also a vocal advocate for female empowerment. As a woman in the spotlight, she encourages women to be true to themselves, fight for what they believe in, and also to pursue their passions just as she has. She wants to be an inspiration to girls and women everywhere.
Inspiring Others
In order to help inspire other women, Paige hosts events and clinics that help support young women. She also spreads positive messages and posts inspirational messages on her social media pages. She wants to inspire women to pursue golf and also to follow their dreams like she did.
An Online Personality
As an active social media star, Paige is frequently seen at many events. She hosts golf clinics and partners with companies. She has partnered with Topgolf, Barstool Sports, and 18Birdies. Paige is not afraid to stay in the limelight and keep her life exciting.
The Trick Shots
One of the things that helped propel Paige into fame is the fact that she’s a talented amateur trick shot artist. She posted some of her incredible trick shots on her YouTube channel, and these videos quickly became viral and helped her become the social media sensation she is today.
Big Comics Fan
Although sports and golf are her main interest in life, that doesn’t mean that Paige does not have any other interests at all! This might surprise you, but Paige is a huge comic book fan. She has even posted videos in which she is decked out in a Batman outfit while she is golfing.
Cover Model
In addition to racking up golf titles, Paige also managed to received another title: model. She appeared in the 2018 spread of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Many models and athletes strive for this, and it is impressive that Paige has checked off this accomplishment as well.
Her YouTube Channel
Paige is quite active on her YouTube channel, where she posts weekly videos whose topics range from pop culture, to golfing tips, to her personal goals in golfing. It’s a great way for her fans to connect with her both on a professional and personal level.
Her Golfing Tips
The golfing tips that Paige offers in her videos include in-depth and professional lessons that aim to help aspiring golfers fine tune their specific skills and improve their overall skills of the game. However, she also provides golfing basics so that beginners can also learn from her.
Paige’s Background
Paige was born in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. If you were wondering what ethnicity her last name indicates, that would be Croatian! She grew up splitting time in Monument, Colorado and Scottsdale, Arizona, in order to train.
An Athletic Family
Athletic skill and talent runs in the Spiranac family. Paige’s father was on the 1976 Pittsburgh Panthers national championship college football team, while her mother was a professional ballerina. Paige’s sister, Lexie, received an athletic scholarship to attend Stanford as a track runner. What an impressive family!
Growing Up
When she was growing up, Paige was an aspiring gymnast. She trained hard and was able to skip from level six all the way to Elites, when she was invited to Karolyi Ranch, the USA Gymnastic National Team Training Center.
A Talented Gymnast
Her impressive gymnastic skills earned her way to the top training facility in the country. However, after she broke her kneecap twice at age 12 she had to retire from gymnastics altogether. This is when she made the decision to start golfing instead.
Why She Chose Golf
After she had to retire from gymnastics, Paige could have chosen any other sport. However, what drew her to golfing was the fact that it is a solitary sport. Since she experienced bullying as a child, the fact that she could be on her own while golfing was truly appealing.
How She Managed
In order to dedicate a huge amount of her time to training golf, Paige split her time between Monument, Colorado and Scottsdale, Arizona. This meant that she could not be at a traditional school, and so she was home schooled instead.
A Winning Streak
Early on in her golfing career, Paige participated in seven tournaments in Colorado’s junior golf circuit, while going on to win five of them. She won the 2010 CWGA Junior Stroke Play. How impressive!
Her Rankings
Paige earned a spot in the top 20 junior player rankings in the whole world. She also was a top 5 college recruit, a two time West Region Player of the Year, and also a first-team All-American while part of the Future Collegians World Tour. That’s some serious skill.
Transferring Schools
All of her hard work and success as a junior certainly paid off, as she earned a scholarship to play at the University of Arizona. However, she ended up graduating from San Diego State University. She transferred to SDSU for her sophomore year and finished out her college career there.
Her Time In Arizona
While competing for the Arizona Wildcats in the 2011-2012 season, Paige competed in just three events. She participated in the Windy City Intercollegiate, the PAC-12/SEC Challenge, and the Wildcat Invitational. Her best score was 73, which she scored twice at the Windy City Intercollegiate.
Making A Change
Once she finished her freshman year of college, Paige decided to make a change. In order to play in a different environment, she transferred to the San Diego State University. Ultimately, this will have proved to be a good move for Paige’s career.
Excelling At Her New School
Paige’s 2012-2013 season was much improved than her previous year. She made the First-Team All-Mountain West honors, placed fifth at the Cal Classic, finished sixth at the Mountain West Championship, and ended up 19th at the NCAA Central Regional Championships.
Top Ten Champ
After such an improved year, Paige’s successes kept on coming. In her 2013-2014 junior year, Paige managed to make the Second-Team All-Mountain West Honors and also finished with one top 10 finish while at the Mountain West Championship.
Her Happiest Moment
All of the success that Paige had accomplished throughout her first years of college set her up for a great senior year. In fact, her senior year season ended with the first Mountain West Conference Championship in the school’s history. Paige would describe the experience as: “one of the absolute happiest moments of my life.”
Securing The Win
In July 2015, Paige particpiated in the Colorado Gold Association’s 100th Colorado Gold Association Match Play Championship, which took place at the Raccoon Creek Golf Course. Paige played the 35-hole match against Brittany Fan, from the University of Colorado Boulder. Paige finished nine holds under par, which secured her win.
Taking The Leap
After such a successful college career, Paige was now faced with the choice that would determine the course of the rest of her life. She now had to decided whether to pursue golf as her career and to somehow make a living out of it, or to try her hand at some other career choice.
Total Frat Move Helped Out
At the end of Paige’s college career, a website called Total Frat Move posted her trick shot videos onto their site and encouraged fans to check out more of her videos. In just a matter of days, her follower count went from 10,000 to 100,000 — all thanks to the site mentioning her.
Overnight Fame
Due to her sudden boom in social media following, she got on a lot of people’s radar, and Paige was invited to play at the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic in 2015. She ultimately missed the cut, but the increased online attention led to many sponsorship and endorsement deals.
Successful 2016
The year 2016 was a great one for Paige. She played on the Catcus Tour, and ultimately ended the season with $8000 in winnings as well as yet another invitation to Dubai. But that would not be all 2016 would hold for her…
Colorado Women’s Open
Paige also competed in the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open in 2016. There she placed ninth at one-under-par, which led her to win $1750. It’s clear to see why 2016 was a sweet one for Paige and her budding career as a professional golfer.
Not What It Seems
Many people believe that all professional sports careers are very lucrative. That simply isn’t the case. For example, when Paige debuted on the Cactus Tour, she tied for 14th place and earned a prize of just $100 out of the $12,080 that was up for winning. Although this is a professional sport, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a huge payout. This is why many athletes turn to sponsorship deals.
Her Current Deals
Paige’s endorsement and sponsorship deals have included Mizzen + Main, Philip Stein Watches, 18Birides, and Cybersmile. She has featured in several magazines apart from Sports Illustrated, including Golf Digest. She has also written in a monthly column for Golf Magazine.
On Her Future
While Paige is an undeniably talented golfer at the beginning of her career, don’t expect to see her on a golf tour any time soon. She says she does not enjoy the competitive nature of professional golf and would rather enjoy playing and sharing her golfing on her online presence.
2 Million And Growing
Paige currently has about 2 million followers on her Instagram page, and is gaining more and more followers every day! We wonder what the future holds for this talented young golfer. Only time will tell, but we have a good feeling about it.
Dog Mom
While Paige does not have any kids of her own yet, she is a proud owner of an adorable dog named Niko. She posts cute snaps of the two of them together often on her Instagram page. Just look how adorable he is! This is quite the dynamic duo.
Feeling Betrayed
Paige has opened up about dating while being the the public eye and the struggles that she faces due to her publicity. She says that on multiple occasions she has discovered that men have begun dating her only to benefit from her golf skills and to try to improve their own game.
Being Taken Advantage Of
Paige explained: “I would always open up a conversation with, ‘Hey I play golf’ and anything along those lines and I thought that it would work. Unfortunately, guys were using me for golf lessons, golf equipment and golf balls…It would turn into an hour lesson of me just helping the guy become a better golfer. That happened all the time, since I was desperate and I wanted guys to like me.”
Her Football Team
Just because she’s a golf star doesn’t mean that Paige isn’t into any other sports! She is very open about the fact that she is a football fan and the Pittsburgh Steelers are her team. She has posted photos from Steelers games where she was cheering them on.
Favorite Comic Book
We already know that Paige is a big fan of comics and comic books. But did you know that her absolute favorite is none other than Iron Man? We certainly don’t blame her, as it really is one of the best comic books and film franchises out there.
Her Thoughts On Tiger
Tiger Woods is known to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. So what are Paige’s thoughts on golf after Tiger retires? In her own words: “More people are now coming to tournaments and it’s picked it up again but what’s going to happen when he is done playing? Who are we going to want to watch on TV?”
Playing While Impaired
She absolutely doesn’t condone playing while impaired, and she has shared just how difficult it is to play on a morning after indulging in a bit too many drinks. Paige said: “Nothing is worse than playing golf hungover, that is the absolute worst, a morning tee time after drinking…Your hands are shaky, your nauseous, you don’t want to be in the sun. It’s the worst…I’ve never actually played tipsy or drunk but I have played a lot of rounds hungover the next day, especially in college.”
A Funny Anecdote
Paige shared an embarrassing but hilarious story from her college days. She recounted: “I remember we had to go to a golf tournament, this was my second tournament. We went out the night before and I forgot to pack some of my shirts, I forgot to pack my golf shoes and my hats and my visors. I show up for the practice round with tennis shoes on, no hat, no visor, and sweatpants. My coach was like ‘what happened?’ She had to give me her golf shoes, and I had to borrow a hat, but I ended up playing really well so she made me wear her golf shoes for the rest of the year.”
Her Podcast
In February 2020, Paige decided to launch her very own podcast, which is called Playing A Round With Paige Renee and is hosted by iHeartRadio. On her podcast, Paige shares her thoughts on golf, sports in general, and other topics she wants to discuss. Her podcast gives her a chance to connect with fans directly and show off her personality.
Hitting Back At The Haters
When she received some backlash about creating a podcast, she immediately hit back on her Twitter page, saying: “Someone just said I’m stupid for starting a podcast because no one cares what I have to say and I should stick to bikini pictures….Nah I’d rather do both”
She’s Hard On Herself
Paige opened up about her struggled with being a people-pleaser and putting a lot of pressure on herself. She said: “I always seek people’s approval and I’m always never good enough. I’m always wanting to do everything I can for them.”
Mental Health Struggles
Paige has also opened up about her struggles with her mental health and depression, which led her to have some thoughts about taking her own life. She decided to take her life back into control and said: “Now with my anxiety and my depression I just try to handle it head-on.” She does this by eating healthy and channeling her stress into working out.
Sliding Into Her DMs
One day in 2016, Paige received a direct message on her Instagram account from a man named Steven Tinoco, who is a baseball player. While she was used to receiving many messages from men, fate had a hand in this one. She actually ran into him one night after he messaged her, and he ended up asking her out.
Upcoming Nuptials
Although Paige has experienced several bad relationships in the past, her relationship with Steven is different. She says he’s an incredibly nice and respectful person who treats her very well. Tinoco proposed to Paige in Dubai and the two plan on getting married in the near future.
More To Come
Paige has said that she is just at the beginning of the road when it comes to her career. She plans on continuing her podcast and pursuing even more projects in the future. We can’t wait to see what else Paige has in store for us!