Former golf star Paige Spiranac has hit out at the hypocrisy she claims is rife within the “elitist” sport, opening up about her love-hate relationship with it.

The American college prodigy, who had a short career as a professional before walking away from the sport at the top level, slammed golf for being too exclusive and not a place where people who don’t fit the traditional mould can feel comfortable.

“Golf is elitist, it’s stuffy, it’s exclusive and I hate that because I am not that and I was never welcomed in and I’m still not welcomed in,” Spiranac said in the latest episode of her podcast Playing-A-Round.

“It’s like my whole life I’m trying to find a place where I can fit in and that I feel comfortable and that I feel at peace with myself and I haven’t found that. Golf is the absolute worst place for me to be because I am the exact opposite of everything that a golfer should encompᴀss, should be, and I’m not.

“I’m not refined, I’m raw and real and I wear what I want and I have always been so different and golf is not that way.”

Spiranac took aim at golf for having so many rules and regulations around what players can wear and how they must act, to the point where it scares people off the game because they’re fearful they won’t fit in.

The 26-year-old, who suffers from anxiety, sH๏τ to stardom several years ago and now boasts more than two million Instagram followers. She regularly posts pH๏τos of herself on the golf course wearing clothes that might not normally be acceptable in official tournaments, and lashed out at how something as innocuous as wearing a tank-top has seen her shamed as a “s**t”.

“It’s an act. I feel like everyone in golf is just playing this part of this perfect golfer when in reality it’s nothing like that,” Spiranac said.

“They call it a gentleman’s game but those guys definitely don’t act like gentlemen a lot of the time.

“There’s just so much hypocrisy in golf and it’s so frustrating for me.

“It’s this big boys club where if someone does something they’ll cover that up … but I wear a tank top and I’m the s**t and I’m the w***e and I’m the one that’s ruining the game.

“I’m not going to feel like I fit in when everything that I do, I’m an outcast.”

Spiranac also recalled how she was rejected by a charity when she offered to help because its board members didn’t approve of her image.

“I wanted to help this charity out and I wanted to give them free golf clubs,” she said. “The guy wrote back and said, ‘We would love to but, because of the way our board members view you, you can’t help out’.

“I want to give back to these kids who don’t have anything, because I grew up not having anything, and I can’t even f***ing do that because of my cleavage.

“We bond over having a common interest and we all love the same thing … I don’t understand why it matters if you’re wearing a polo (shirt) and I’m not wearing a polo.

“If a guy on tour wears shorts instead of pants, the world’s not going to end. In golf, people make all of these problems so serious and it’s not serious.”