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Charles Schwab Presents
Music plays.
Throughout, Tania Tare, a woman in her thirties, walks along a golf course and a beach in New Zealand. She hits a variety of shots, mostly trick shots, on the course and in her home.
Tania: I’m obsessed with golf. Aren’t we all [laughs]?
Percussive music plays.
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The Challengers.
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Tania Tare
Upbeat, poppy music plays.
Tania: I am Tania Tare, and I’m a professional golfer and trick shot artist. I grew up here in Auckland, New Zealand. And I’ve been playing golf since I was about 15. Well, I hit my first ball at 14, and then probably my first golf round was when I was 15. I played a lot of tournaments in New Zealand, then I went to college on a scholarship at FIU in Miami.
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Titirangi Golf Club
Auckland, New Zealand
Tania: And then post-college tried to turn pro and do the pro thing. But I’ve had three wrist surgeries, so I haven’t really had a full shot at it.
I would say after I had my third wrist surgery, I think that I was just hardened after that. And so I think that was the first time I realized I might need to start thinking outside the box. I knew that I wanted to be involved in golf, and I wanted to make a career out of golf, but I didn’t know how to do that.
So the question I was asking myself was, “How do I stay in golf if I’m not competing?”
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How do I stay in golf if I’m not competing?
Tania: So I kinda fell into trick shots a little bit. I just did trick shots personally for my friends and family because they thought golf was really lame, and I was trying to make it cool. But the first time I did a trick shot that I just made up on my own, just bounced a couple of ping pong balls between my legs and hit them into Solo cups. And it was pretty basic, looking back on it now, but no one had done that before. And so those videos, both just my friends and stuff, were going pretty well, and everyone was really excited about them.
With her arm alternately in a sling or bandaged up at the wrist, Tania bounces golf balls with her club and knocks them into plastic cups across the room.
Tania: And then fast-forward a year and a half, so I just took my profile off private and then within 24 hours, the golf pages were all posting them. “Hey, can we post your videos? These are awesome. Never seen this stuff before.” And then they pretty much went viral. And that’s kind of how it all started. And then everyone was like, “Hey, you’re the trick shot girl.” And I was like, “Oh, guess I’m the trick shot girl” [laughs]. I think at this point today, I’ve done around 400 trick shots.
Tania spins a ball on the face of her club.
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I’ve done around 400 trick shots.
Tania: Honestly, I really enjoyed just hitting it out the air purely. When I pull that off, I feel like that’s still as satisfying today as it was when I first did it. But my favorite set of trick shots I’ve done are the flip cup ones, only because no one’s ever done something like that before and they get harder and harder.
Tania attempts a trick shot, losing control of her club three times before getting it right.
Tania: For me, I think the perfect trick shot is something that looks visually easy enough that you try it, but hard enough that you can’t pull it off.
Thomas Davies, a young man with bleach-blonde hair, walks along the beach with Tania.
Thomas: My name’s Thomas Davies, and I’m Tania’s youngest brother. Before Tania started doing trick shots, I thought of golf as this mundane sport, but she really showed me that golf could actually be fun. And I’m pretty impressed at how much exposure she has gotten across the globe. All my friends even know who Tania is, and every time she’s back, they try to get a game of golf with her. It’s crazy how the world sees Tania as this pro trick shot artist now, but she’s also a professional golfer, and she’s still my big sister.
Closeup of Tania’s black sheep logo ball cap. Tania, wearing her cap, and Thomas stand on the beach laughing.
Tania: I wanted a logo that encompassed everything about me. So the Black Sheep stands for two things. One, it reminds me of New Zealand. And two, I think everyone should strive to be their original authentic selves. I feel like that’s the most valuable thing about a person. Just having wrist surgery after wrist surgery, I thought maybe that golf wasn’t for me. But I think being a black sheep let me kind of choose the trick shot path and still know I was going in the right direction.
I think even though I haven’t really gotten a great shot at playing competitively, my life has actually turned out probably a lot better. I’ve got to places that I haven’t been able to go before. I’ve met so many amazing people who I’m now friends with, and been on the James Corden Show and Tosh.0.
Screenshots of social media show Tania with James Corden and Daniel Tosh.
Tania: So I’ve gotten to do amazing things all purely because of trick shots. But when I find out that someone who didn’t play now plays because of the trick shots, that makes me feel like I’m showing golf in a different way, and people are saying to themselves, “Oh, golf isn’t just this one-dimensional thing. There’s so many different ways you can jump into golf and enjoy it.”; I think that’s always most satisfying for me.
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Tania’s trick shots have been viewed 100s of millions of times.
Tania [hitting a ball into a cup in her room]: Yes! I got it!
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She gets home to New Zealand as often as she can.
And if she can avoid further injury, she’s still hoping to compete again.
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo] Own your tomorrow®
Tania: And I still want to keep playing competitively in golf. And I think honestly will probably never stop playing.
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[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo] The Official Investment Firm
©2023 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0323-2ZDH)
Thanks To
Titirangi Golf Club
Doug White
Thomas Davies
Peter Aitken
Jo Dawkins
Sandi Young
Xcalibur Film Productions
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