Spiranac breaks down discussing cyber bullying and depression

Golf's social media queen Paige Spiranac has broken down discussing cyber bullying and online threats on her return to the Dubai Ladies Masters.

Spiranac was recounting the abuse she endured after her professional debut at last year's Dubai Ladies Master, where she tied last on 15 over par.

The 23-year-old needed time to compose herself before addressing the troubling time in her life.

"I think it’s really important…people need to see how much it actually does affect me, and the things they call me,” Spiranac said.

"I feel like I was raised right from my parents, and for them to attack my parents and attack what I’m doing, it’s really difficult.

"I struggled with a lot of depression after it, because as a 22-year-old, you feel like you’re not worth anything.

The social media star, who has 861,000 Instagram followers, was forced to stay offline for weeks after the episode.

She insisted it was an important topic to discuss with the rise of teenage suicide rates.

“And they think it’s (teenage suicide) because of cyber bullying. And so if I can share my story, and I’m okay with being emotional about it and I’m okay with kind of expressing what happened to me, because people don’t realise how hard it was on me…people saying the world is better off without me.

"Cyber bullying is a huge problem and no one ever discusses it. It’s no longer funny. It’s not the cool thing to do to make fun of other people, and you need to be supportive and I think that’s really important."

Spiranac was criticised after her horror performance at last year's event largely because she only made the tournament via sponsor's exemption and critics argued she isn't focused on her game, but rather the attention she receives off the course.

"To have all these people say that I'm not like a golfer, I'm not a good person, you know, I'm promiscuous or make these judgments about me that are not true, it's really hard, just because I like to wear Spandex on the golf course," she said.

Reporters broke out in applause for the American after an emotional and courageous response that will only earn her more fans.