Why Paige Spiranac gave up on professional golf dream: ‘I just broke’

The ending of Paige Spiranac’s professional golf career still keeps her up at night.

During the latest installment of her “Playing A Round” podcast, the golf influencer — who turned pro for a year after playing at the University of Arizona and San Diego State — recalled feeling broken at the end of her brief pro career.

In search of a “big change,” Spiranac started her golf journey after making the difficult decision to quit gymnastics at the age of 12.

“From the first golf ball I ever hit, I dedicated everything I had to being a pro golfer,” Spiranac said, adding that her father got her into the sport after a flirtation with tennis.

“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.”

Spiranac, who turns 30 later this month, said she and her family thought going to college was the best route to get a different experience and play on a team since she had been homeschooled for so long.

“So many growing pains,” she said. “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.

“I just got to the point where I just stopped caring. I wanted to have more of a social life. I wanted to have fun. I was tired of dedicating my life to something and just not seeing the result. So when I was playing at SDSU, I just lost my desire for it.