PAIGE SPIRANAC revealed how her ‘scary’ mum almost banned her from playing golf after catching her cheating.

The social media personality was discussing the topic on her podcast last year after Patrick Reed was accused of cheating.

Reed, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, claimed his ball was embedded in the rough – which would have permitted him relief.

But replays showed the ball bounced before Reed picked it up and then called over a rules official.

The controversy sparked a big debate and it was no different on Spiranac’s Playing-A-Round podcast.

But the topic of conversation turned to her brief golf career where she admitted to bending the rules herself.

Spiranac was a star of the amateur circuit from a young age.

After a couple of Ladies European Tour events, which coincided with the rise of her online fame, she won a Cactus Tour match in Arizona.

She said: “I cheated myself once, and I learned my lesson the very hard way.

“It was one of my very first tournaments, I ended up hitting a ball in the water but I was on a very steep slope. I just ended up dropping another ball and saying I found it.

“I played it off and my mum, who packed my golf bag the night before, said ‘hey you started the round with six balls how do you only have five?’

“She is one of the sweetest ladies ever but she is scary, you do not want to disappoint her.

“She just gave me this look and she said ‘if you ever do that again, if I ever catch you cheating, you will never play golf ever again.’

“I was like ‘OK’ and I learned my lesson.”

Having failed to qualify for the LPGA Tour, she quit professional playing and focused on building her online persona as a tutorial producer, podcaster and social media personality.

Spiranac has built an army of online supporters with her revealing golf tutorials.

She has 3.4million followers on Instagram but has admitted the pressures of social media to leave her feeling ‘anxious’.