When Paige Spiranac first opened up about personal and professional hardships on her “Playing A Round” podcast, she never could have imagined the influx of responses that have since poured in.
“At the very beginning, I didn’t think that I would have those responses. I knew there were certain things that I definitely wanted to talk about, like never being accepted in the golf industry, and then the nude picture was something I wanted to discuss,” Spiranac told The Post recently.
“I didn’t know how any of that would be accepted by other people, but as those episodes have come out, the response has been overwhelming.”
With over 2.3 million Instagram followers and counting, fans have embraced Spiranac’s transparency both on and off the golf course. Earlier this year, the 26-year-old recounted one of the most difficult parts of her past, grappling with a nude photo scandal, and the anxious emotions that followed.
“When I talked about the nude picture, I got thousands and thousands of messages from men and women who could relate or guys who didn’t know how this made women feel,” Spiranac said.
“I didn’t expect that response, I was shocked by it. It was overwhelming in such a positive way and it made me realize that even though telling these stories is really difficult, they do make an impact and so it’s worth it in the end.”
The topics on Spiranac’s show are sometimes planned, but when she and co-host Josh Temple “start talking, we never stick to anything.”
“It takes so many twists and turns, which is really fun cause we kinda just let the conversation flow,” Spiranac explained.
Among the topics Spiranac has discussed is fitting into the golf community.
“Golf is a very male-dominated sport and being a young female, it’s hard to find people you connect with, and since there’s not a lot of women, the women are also very competitive with each other and so it can be a very toxic environment at times,” she said.
Though Spiranac struggled when she played professionally — “it’s very lonely out on the road, you don’t really have anyone there” — she hopes by speaking candidly about her own experiences, it opens a door to further conversations.
“I want to speak out about it because I get messages from people saying, ‘I don’t feel comfortable being a woman going to a golf course,’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable cause I look different than everyone else going to a golf course,’ and so I want to bring attention to that and not a lot of people in golf are talking about it,” she said.
While Spiranac has endured criticism in the past for her ensembles, it has not deterred her passion for the game.
As the podcast episodes keep rolling, Spiranac hopes to converse with other guests who “have an interesting story” to share.
“I think we just want people with interesting stories and something to say,” she said.
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