Our commitment goes the distance.
For more than 25 years, we’ve been the Official Investment Firm of the PGA TOUR®. During that time, our dedication to the game has only increased. Whether we’re awarding the Charles Schwab Cup to the PGA TOUR Champions top player, sponsoring the Charles Schwab Challenge, becoming the Official Wealth Management Firm of the PGA of America, or just helping people perfect their swing, golf is in our DNA. Simply put, we’re as passionate about the game as we are about investing.
Meet the Challengers.
Charles Schwab himself challenged the way traditional Wall Street firms were serving their customers. To honor his legacy, we celebrate those who never settle for the status quo. Our award-winning film series highlights innovators in the golf world who are improving the game by pushing the boundaries.
Approach every shot with precision.
Get up to 6 rounds of golf, 3 Vokey® wedges, and 1 dozen Pro V1® golf balls with a qualifying net deposit between now and October 31.
Be fully invested in your game and future.
Already have an account?
Call
800-435-4000
Michael Block Video Transcript
Music plays.
Onscreen text:
Charles Schwab Presents
Michael sits in an office crowded with golf memorabilia. Then he’s out walking a golf course, a dog trotting ahead of him.
Throughout, Michael is playing golf, often accompanied by his dog, or is sitting in his crowded office.
Michael Block: I was never that great in high school. But I was kind of a late bloomer. I started playing a little better and better, but at no point was I like, “Hey, let's go turn pro and be on the PGA Tour.”
Onscreen text:
The Challengers.
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Michael Block
Michael: My name is Michael Block. I'm the head golf professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club. I asked myself at an early age, “Are you good enough to be on the PGA Tour?” And I realized, thank goodness that no, I wasn't. Because for me to be successful on the tour, I needed to be top 100 in the world, and I really didn't feel like I had that game. I just knew that I really wanted to be in the golf business, and I needed to go to the golf course every day of my life. I didn't want to be anywhere else but at a golf course. So my goal was to be the head pro at a great course, and I've been lucky enough to do that.
Arroyo Trabuco opened in '04, and for, I'd say, almost eight years, I helped the people here to open this club up. I only ran a Tuesday morning skins game for the employees, and that's all my golf was. And then once the club was up and going, I had a lot of people going, "Michael, you need to get your PGA membership and plan these tournaments. You're just throwing money out your sunroof." So I got my PGA membership at age 35 and immediately qualified for the national championship for the PGA Club Pros—312 pros from across the country—and I was lucky enough to win it my first year out. And it just kind of opened up the floodgates. So I shoot some course records or whatever it might be, and everyone's always like, "Hey, Michael, you need to go get on the tour. You need to go on the tour.”
Onscreen text:
Do I want to have a six-foot putt to pay for my mortgage?
Michael: And I’m like, “Do I want to have a six-foot putt to pay for my mortgage?” And I figured out very early, I am much more comfortable at a golf course being social with the members, teaching. And I know that that's my path in the golf world.
Music stops.
Michael [exclaiming after sinking a putt]: Oh, there we go.
Rhythmic but less intense music begins.
Michael: So a lot of people think that PGA Professionals such as myself, who run golf courses or teach, can't really play golf. But it's so far from the truth. Every year, if you're able to qualify, you can go play against the Rory McIlroys and the Jordan Spieths and the Tiger Woods.
Onscreen text:
2023 PGA Championship
Oak Hill Country Club
Michael is at the 2023 PGA Championship. Hundreds of golf fans are behind him, watching and cheering. He and his caddy shake hands with Rory McIlroy, and then he prepares to tee off.
Tournament announcer [off-screen]: Now on the tee from California, PGA Professional, Michael Block.
Michael: Obviously, the PGA Professional, we don't make nearly the money or have the fame, which they deserve. PGA Tour players are out on the road 35 weeks a year.
Now Michael is playing golf with his son Dylan.
Michael: Club professionals get to be at their house with their family year-round. And I'm lucky enough to where I've been able to kind of do both. I dabble in the PGA Tour world, but there's nothing absolutely better for me than to get in the cart, to have my puppy, Messy, jump in there with me. I love being with my family. And I'm lucky enough to have two boys, Ethan and Dylan, that love the game as much as I do. I always tell my boys and my wife, I say, "Golf gave us this; that golf gave us the food that we have on the table, and it gave us the house we live in." So the sport's been very good to me, and I love giving back.
[After a shot] We’ll take it.
Michael: It's sad to say, but also fantastic. Literally every day, 365 days a year, evolves around the game of golf.
Onscreen text:
When we have a day off we go play golf.
Michael: My family, when we have a day off, we go play golf. We don't go to the beach. We don't go to the mall. We go to the golf course. That's just what the Block family does.
Michael is putting, but his dog, Messy, hits the ball it his paw, knocking it away from the hole.
Music stops.
Dylan Block: [Laughing] Messy’s on my side.
New music begins.
Michael: I love being a club professional. And I feel like we're lucky enough where we get to still go out there and compete against the best in the world. But the PGA Tour pros, they're not afraid of me, a 47-year-old club pro. They're so good. It is unbelievable. For me to just even be able to compete against them is a dream, and I'm very lucky to do that. But I've always lived in this way where, “Why not?” Why can't it be me that hits that low chip, lands just short, and checks to a foot, and I get up and down, and I qualify for an event? Why can't that be me?
At a PGA event, Michael holds an umbrella above his caddy and himself as they walk toward his ball for the next shot.
Fan [off-screen]: Michael!
Seth Waugh: I am Seth Waugh. I'm the CEO of the PGA of America at the PGA Championship.
Onscreen text:
2023 PGA Championship
15th Hole
Michael tees off. The ball sails down the course and goes straight into the hole.
Seth: Michael's hole in one on 15, it was extraordinary.
TV announcer [off-screen]: A hole in one for Michael Block!
Seth: The cheers were louder for the everyman than they were for the champion. And the game needed something like that.
Rory McIlroy, Michael’s caddy, and others hug and high-five Michael as fans cheer.
Onscreen text:
Arroyo Trabuco
Club House
In the clubhouse at Michael’s home course, a crowd is watching Michael on TV and cheers for his hole in one.
Seth: Shining a light on PGA Professionals and what our 30,000 do every day and showcased and why we're the gold standard in the game. There's just so many good young players coming up, and I think Michael has given them even more belief and inspiration.
Onscreen text:
Michael Tothe
Tournament Director
Charles Schwab Challenge
Michael is sitting at a table in a clubhouse, listening as Michael Tothe invites him to participate in the Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament. In reaction, Michael puts his elbows on the table and covers his face with his hands.
Michael Tothe [off-screen]: We have an exemption available, and we'd love for you to be at Fort Worth this week.
Michael Block: PGA Professionals have been very supportive. I've gotten so many emails and personal phone calls and letters saying their clubs have been in their office with dust on them, and they're starting to play again. And they're playing in their metro events, their chapter events, their section events, and hopefully going to get a top 20 and play in a Major. It's so cool. The PGA America has given me so much. If I can just repay them in any way possible, I'm going to.
Seth: Because it isn't about the 18th green for us. It's about leaving this game better than we found it.
At the 2023 PGA Championship, Michael retrieves his ball from the cup at the 15th hole as the crowd loudly cheers his hole in one.
Onscreen text:
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®
Michael is playing golf with his son Dylan. As they walk away from a hole, they fist bump.
Michael Block: If my boys are in a PGA Tour event, or even better, a major championship, I can retire. I could basically just put the clubs to the side and be the happiest guy in the world.
Onscreen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm
©2024 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0224-4P5E)
Music stops.
On-screen text:
Thanks to
Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club
Dylan Block
Geoff Cram
Davis Holman
Gabriella DeGasperis Video Transcript
Music plays.
Gabriella stands on a golf course, wearing a red hoodie. Her breath turns to steam as she talks.
Throughout, Gabriella is often on a golf course, practicing different shots, performing tricks with her clubs and golf balls, explaining what she does.
On-screen text:
Charles Schwab Presents
Gabriella DeGasperis: There’s a lot of fake stuff on YouTube, but I’m not interested in that. I want to give people the real me.
On-screen text:
The Challengers.
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Gabriella DeGasperis
Gabriella: I’m Gabriella DeGasperis. Golfer and social media content creator. Most people know me as Gabby Golf Girl.
Her Gabby Golf Girl golf bag stands upright on a course. Then Gabby is driving balls. Then old footage shows Gabby as a very young girl, playing golf.
Gabriella: I started playing golf when I was two years old. My parents got me a set of golf clubs. They were pink. And I kind of just fell in love with it.
Gabriella is on a course, practicing putting. She misses her first putt.
Gabriella: I love the game so much. I love that I have to put in a lot of work to get better. I love a challenge, and I love sharing that with others. In my experience, junior golf is so competitive that it can take the fun out of the game. And that’s not me. I don’t want to be a part of that.
On-screen text:
Can positivity make me a better golfer?
Gabriella: Can positivity make me a better golfer?
On-screen text:
Shorter backswing warmups
Grab each end of the club
Stretch the take away
Clips from some of Gabriella’s YouTube videos play.
Gabriella: I make all types of videos. Tips to help people get better. Tricks for fun. I challenge people at the random golf courses. I do collab. I always try and choose the tips that I’m working on myself.
On-screen text:
This is a great feel drill to do for chipping off extremely tight lie
Gabriella [in a video clip]: This is a great feel drill to do for chipping off an extremely tight lie.
I’m working on something, I’m like let’s do a tip about that. I just want to make it as authentic as possible. Right now, what I think needs the most work in my game is putting. And I think that’s just because I’m more of a mathematical person. Not really that feel-oriented. So I have a hard time with speed on putting.
On-screen text:
For me, this is the best putting drill.
Best putting drill
Line up 6 balls
Gabriella [in a video clip]: For me this is the best putting drill.
I’m learning the game, and I’m teaching the game at the same time. Helping someone else play well makes me feel just as good as playing well myself.
On-Screen text:
Oh.
Gabriella: I’ve had a billion coaches, but my best coach is my dad.
Ron DeGasperis: My name is Ron DeGasperis, and I’m Gabby’s dad. And obviously as a dad, I’m super proud of her. I’d love to tell you that I’m there really managing her time. The fact is that she really is managing her time on her own.
Gabriella: Every day I kind of set out to do two things: Get better at my game and help others to find their love for the game.
On-screen text:
I’m the first tee time in the entire club.
Gabriella: I’m the first tee time in the entire club. I play for about an hour and 30 minutes. That’s 18 holes. And then right after that, I usually go home, early lunch, do some homework. Then I’ll come back, practice, film for social media. Anything that I have to do for Instagram reels or any other social media, I’ll do then. Then I come back, edit all of it, do homework, 9 to 11 o’clock at night.
Gabriella and her dad use a phone to make a video. Then she uses her phone and a laptop computer to edit the video.
Gabriella: I analyze what I do a lot. If you open my laptop, it’s YouTube analytics on the top. And we’ll have a spreadsheet. We’ll say, okay, which videos gained the most followers? Which videos have the most comments? And we kind of put them in categories, and then whatever’s doing the best at that moment, we’ll put out more. The best video that ever performed was the one where I just introduced my mom.
Her laptop screen shows her YouTube page and then the number of views some of her videos have gotten.
On-screen text:
Meet my Mom
Gabriella [in a video clip]: It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m bringing out my mom. So meet my mom.
Mrs. DeGasperis [in a video clip]: When Gabby was little, my husband and I would write on her gloves motivational quotes.
Gabriella: I don’t know if I can remember the best comment. But really, I do like the tips comments because I feel like I’m helping others. That makes me feel so good. They’ll say, “You shaved five strokes off my game.” “I loved when you said this.” I’m like, that’s what I’m trying to do, you know?
[A very young Gabriella in an old video clip]This is the two-ball chip shot.
When she hits the balls, one goes straight up and she catches it; the other ball rolls toward the hole and sinks. The young Gabriella screams joyfully and runs off.
Ron: I think the exciting thing about this journey on social media for Gabby is the fan base that she’s created, and it’s growing so rapidly. So for us, it’s exciting as a family to see her wherever she goes to build that momentum and that support of the fans that she has. And if she does make it to the LPGA, then it would truly be unprecedented to have that massive following going into that LPGA Tour.
Gabriella: A fan base for any player, I think, is extremely valuable. But women apply a lot of stress to themselves. Whether it’s in sports or in just regular life. And sports even heighten more. I do it. So do a lot of the girls I play with. And so do a lot of women on the LPGA Tour. And I think that if women can make themselves a little bit more relatable in those tough times, people would sympathize and understand.
Gabriella [in a video clip]: I always want to be transparent and honest with you guys about my golf game. I shot 80 today.
Ron: We obviously have concerns of her being in the public eye. But I think there are concerns in anything you set your kids out to do.
Gabriella: Sometimes the comments are negative. But most of them are really positive, so I’m super grateful for that. Listen, I can’t control what people say. I can control what I put out there.
[in a video clip] I’m just gonna go after every shot the best I can, be as confident as possible. Here we go.
Ron: She’s super mature. She’s super responsible. And we definitely, as a family, have a good management over it. I think she’s gonna have a lot of opportunity just from what she’s learned along this journey. And we’re proud of her no matter what.
Gabriella keeps a golf ball in the air by repeatedly tapping it with a club; then, before the ball can touch the ground, she drives it down the course.
Gabriella: If I played you on golf, I will pick that based off how much do I love the team. Not necessarily the level of golf, but I would want to love the campus, the coach, and the kids that I play with. That is most important.
On-screen text:
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®
Gabriella: You know, golf is my life. But there’s more to me than just golf. I’m still 16. And I don’t know the future. I don’t really know what’s gonna happen.
On-screen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm
©2024 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0224-4P5E)
On-screen text: THANKS TO:
Thomas Szymanowicz
Jeff Massa
Music fades.
Andy Johnson Video Transcript
Music plays.
A golf bag full of clubs leans against a shelf. Andy sits before a computer working, and then is out on a golf course. Throughout, Andy will be out on a course, walking or playing; sitting in an office, often in front of a computer; or aerial shots will show various golf courses.
Onscreen text:
Charles Schwab Presents
Andy Johnson: [Laughing] At this point in my life, golf is my life. I am either talking about it, I'm writing about it, I'm thinking about it at, at all hours of the day.
Onscreen text:
The Challengers.
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Andy Johnson
Andy: I'm Andy Johnson, and I'm the founder of Fried Egg Golf. I grew up playing golf. I was playing competitively as a Mid-Am into my late twenties. And I was the person that watched golf on the weekends, played golf on the weekends, read about golf during the week, and just absolutely nuts about golf.
The things that I was interested in weren't always the things that were covered in mainstream golf. And understanding golf-course architecture really brings another dimension to the game. I have this theory that if somebody's interested in something that means there's thousands of other people that interested in that too.
Onscreen text:
What if we made golf architecture approachable?
Andy: I thought, “What if we made golf architecture approachable and simple and easy to access?” So, I started with Fried Egg Golf. Obviously, you want a golf course that makes you make decisions and makes you think. I thought I should play over here, and I ended up in a terrible place. But then, you know, what's beautiful about golf architecture is the art of it. If you hired ten different architects to look at a piece of land, all ten would come back with a different design.
Onscreen text:
Meadow Club
Fairfax, CA
Andy: Were at Meadow Club, which is in Fairfax, California. It is an Alister MacKenzie design. Back in the 1920s, they didn't have the ability to move a lot of earth, so what they had to do was they had to use the natural features of the ground. And one of the things you notice at Alister MacKenzie's golf courses is he was excellent at picking out the most interesting parts of a property and jamming as many holes as possible on those parts.
Onscreen text:
8th Green
10th Green
11th Green
Andy: So here in this just small vicinity you have the 8th green right behind me. You've got the 10th green just to the left. We're on the 11th tee, and the 11th green plays right on the ridge. The 7th hole comes right back on the back side of this ridge, and then the 8th tee comes from on top of the . . . It's probably, maybe one of the most dramatic parts of the whole golf course.
Everybody knows the Masters, those roars on Sunday.
Onscreen text:
Augusta National
August, GA
10th Green
17TH Green
7TH Green
2ND Green
15TH Green
Andy: One of the reasons they echo through the golf course is that the holes are so close together because the greens, the tees are all placed on these really interesting ridges. So they're just kinda packed together, if that makes sense. A lot of his courses feel so intimate because you visit a place, you go away from it, and then you come back to it. And it creates this sense of familiarity, but you're coming at these really cool features from different angles.
Onscreen text:
Pasatiempo
Santa Cruz, CA
Andy: So when you start to kinda take a step back and look at the entire golf course wholistically, it gives you another thing out on the course that brings enjoyment other than how you play. You can look around and say, "Oh, what a cool bunker that is." Cuz it's amazing how this hole goes over this piece of land. And it kind of takes away the pressure of, "I need to make a par to break 90 for the first time.” That's still part of your golf life but it gives this other thing that brings enjoyment other than how I played today.
A buck stands on a golf course, casting a long shadow from the low sun.
Andy pulls a camera from his golf back and takes pictures of the course. Pages from his Fried Egg Golf website flash by, each featuring a photo of a different golf course.
So I thought one of the biggest gaps in golf coverage was golf course architecture. And that's when we started to dive in and really focus on taking great photos of great golf architecture and explaining it in really simple terms. When I started doing that, I was not good at it.
Kaley Johnson [off-screen]: Yes, he’s colorblind, but he is a photographer. He couldn't write, but he taught himself how to write. He teaches himself whatever he wants to learn.
Kaley: My name is Kaley Johnson, but most people know me as Mrs. Fried Egg. I'm Andy's wife.
Onscreen text:
We put out at least one piece of content every single day.
Andy: We put out at least one piece of content every single day on The Fried Egg.
Kaley: He is a writer now, the great podcaster. He's such a natural.
Andy: Excited to chat with Tom Doak today on the latest episode of The Yolk with Doak.
Andy sits in front of a microphone, recording a podcast. Then he’s in a rocky area with tall grass, send a drone into the air.
Kaley: Everything just continues to evolve and expand. And it's cool to see the audience continue to grow.
Andy: One of the coolest things that happened a couple years ago was Rory Mcllroy in a press conference before Southern Hills PGA talked about how he got ready for the tournament by watching one of our videos.
More pages from Andy’s website flash by.
Professional golfer Rory McIlroy stands before a microphone at a press conference.
Speaker 1: Rory, on knowing the golf course, what did you do to know and to work on once you got here?
Rory McIlroy: So The Fried Egg did a little video with Gill. So I watched that.
Andy: That was really cool. [Laughing] At eight years in, I feel like The Fried Egg's working. [Speaking to a fellow golfer] “I was trying to hole it, so we don't have to hit another one. “
And I think the thing that probably I feel the best about when people talk to me is when the say things like, "I've played golf for 20 years, and I loved it. I never thought I could love this thing more than I used to. And now because of paying attention to golf courses and the architecture of them, I love the game of golf even more than I did before."
Onscreen text:
Tens of thousands of golfers watch, read and listen to Andy’s work every week.
Fried Egg Golf’s architecture videos have been viewed more than 1,000,000 times.
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®
Andy: All of my friends send me pictures every time they get Fried Egg lies. And when I get a Fried Egg lie in the bunker, I do feel a little bit of pressure.
Onscreen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm
©2024 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0224-4P5E)
Onscreen text:
Thanks to
Meadow Golf Club
Jim O’Neal
Music fades.
Tom Coyne Video Transcript
Music plays.
A lawn mower rolls along, cutting grass. Then Tom is sitting in an office chair in a garage.
Throughout, Tom will be playing golf, working to maintain the course, or sitting in the course garage. In Addition, many shots will show different areas of the course—the greens, fairways, woods, and streams.
Onscreen text:
Charles Schwab Presents
Tom Coyne: I thought this would be fun. I’d get to live every golfer’s dream. It’ll be like we bought a zoo. And it’ll be a good time.
On screen text:
The Challengers
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Tom Coyne
Tom walks under some trees, toward a golf green. Then he is sitting in a small maintenance vehicle.
Tom: My name’s Tom Coyne. I am a golf writer turned operator of Sullivan County Golf Club in Liberty, New York.
On-screen text:
Sullivan County Golf Club
Liberty, NY
Photos show Tom walking along an Irish road, carrying a golf bag on his back; squatting in a green field, holding a golf bag, with a dog lying at his feet; walking uphill on a narrow country road, several cows walking ahead of him. Then images of his book covers go by in quick succession. Then Tom is walking a golf course
Tom: I’m probably best known in golf for doing some pretty wild, ridiculous golf adventures. I walked the coast of Ireland for four months with golf clubs on my back. I played every links in Scotland. I played golf in all 50 states for different book projects. But it got to the point where I’d moved around so much, and I’d explored so many different places that I thought, “I really wanna tell the story of one golf club.” And I didn’t expect to be running that golf club. But a story needs a challenge, and this place brought plenty of problems and plenty of challenges.
So Sean Smith, the greenskeeper, reached out and said, “Hey, there’s this wonderful course, but it’s gonna close at the end of the year. Would you like to write about it? Do you know anyone who might like to take it on as a project?”
On-screen text:
Sean Smith
Sullivan County Golf Course, Superintendent
Sean sits in a golf cart just outside of the course garage.
Sean Smith: The place used to be quite a club. It was built in ’25, and all through ’50s, ’60s, ’70s it had a very strong local membership. And through the ’80s and the ’90s, like so many of these small clubs, it just got lost in the wash of big golf, bigger golf courses, more amenities. And it just got forgotten. I know we don’t measure up in a lotta ways to other places, but in a lotta ways we do, and he sees that.
The inside walls of the garage are covered with old signs, some of which are humorous. Tom is just inside a garage door, hitting balls out into a grassy area.
Tom: So there is this question of how good can the golf get with the resources that we have? Because we have very limited resources. So I have had to think a lot about what makes a golf course great?
On screen text:
What makes a golf course great?
Tom: What does a golf course really need? And I found that it’s a lot less than I thought it was. You need good greens. You need grass on the fairways. You need the tees to be in pretty good shape. But I also think, to make a golf course good, a golf course also needs to be accessible. We had to keep this place affordable. And we wanna maintain what’s special about the place. It should feel old. It should feel Catskills. But it can also keep getting better. And that’s the challenge.
As a writer, you have to be pretty comfortable being by yourself. And now I spend hours at a time on a mower or out on the golf course with my thoughts. And it actually gives me a lotta time to think about, “What am I doing here? What is the story? Are we going in the right direction? How long does this play out? What is the endgame here?” It gives you a lot of time to daydream about where it might go. But also think practically about, “Okay, what’s the next step?”
Sean: Tom Coyne is a golf nut at the end of the day. To my eyes, he’s no longer Tom Coyne the writer or the podcaster. He’s been kind of our third full-time guy this year on the maintenance crew. It’s not just been having someone so influential in the golf industry here, but he’s been able to contribute down in the dirt like a proper golf nut. Not just someone who’s here for the pictures and for the golf. He’s contributed at every level.
On-screen text:
I mow the fairways and the tees.
Tom: I get here early in the morning. I’m on the machines, and I love it. Yeah, I mow the fairways and the tees. I’ll cut holes. I can change pins. I fix a lot of ball marks. I rake traps. Getting to know a little bit about what a greenskeeper knows on a golf course has changed my perspective as a golfer and has changed my expectations of what I want in a golf course.
It’s funny. People ask me, “Are you writing the book? When is the book gonna be out?” That’s not sort of how I work, and I also don’t know what the ending is. I really don’t know yet if this is a comedy or a tragedy. I hope it has a happy ending. I think it’s going to have a happy ending, but the story is being written every day that I’m out here. But I know that this place should exist for a lot of reasons. And so I feel a responsibility here that maybe I didn’t expect to feel.
A Sullivan County Golf Club flag flutters in the breeze. The course’s clubhouse—a small building—is situated near houses in the small town.
Tom: This is a point of pride for this town. It should exist cuz it’s got this great history. It should exist for golf. And it certainly should exist for the people who work here. We need to make sure that we maintain the spirit of what it actually is—a Catskills Mountain nine-holer. We can’t lose that soul. So that makes it a special place for me.
It’s the sort of dream thing, right? A golfer who runs his own golf course. And I have to remind myself at the end of the day, I’ve never been an early riser, but I find myself waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning thinking about, “Did I order golf balls? Is that mower running? What are we gonna do about the dandelions?” All these things running through your head. And you sometimes do have to step back and think, “What we’re doing here . . . we are doing enough. We’re giving it everything we have. And it’s enough because people are showing up, and they’re having fun.”
I was up here a few weeks ago, and a member had just finished his round and went in and had some beers with his friends. And he walked out, and I was standing outside the pro shop. He said to himself, “That was a great day.” I thought, “That’s why I’m here.”
Sean: We’re gonna end up with twice, maybe three times the rounds that we’ve done in the last three years. It’s a big, scary future for a little place like this. But he’s made all the difference in the world.
On screen text:
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®
Tom: If old Tom Morris came out of his grave and said, “I’ll give you nine more holes,” I would say no thank you. Just now that I know the work that goes into taking care of nine holes, nine holes is plenty.
Onscreen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm
Music ends.
©2024 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0224-4P5E)
Tania Tare Video Transcript
On-screen text:
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.
On-screen text:
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.
On-screen text:
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?”
On-screen text:
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.
On-screen text:
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.
On-screen text:
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!
On-screen text:
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.
On-screen text:
[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
Music ends.
Zac Blair Video Transcript
Music plays.
Zac Blair—a thirty-something wearing a hoodie and an orange stocking cap—is on a golf course, sunlit trees behind him, looking through a laser rangefinder. Then he’s walking down a trail through a wooded area.
Throughout, he will be on golf courses, walking or playing golf, sometimes with others; or he will be sitting in a work yard, a large pile of sand, a piece of heavy equipment, and a clubhouse behind him. In addition, aerial shots will show parts of different golf courses—greens, fairways, sand traps, sandy roads.
Onscreen text:
Charles Schwab Presents
Zac Blair: The par fives are really cool. Not that we didn’t do good with the fours, and I think the threes are amazing. But the fives really stand out to me.
Onscreen text:
The Challengers.
A series about people who
Question. Engage. Succeed.
Zac Blair
Zac: I’m Zac Blair, and I’m a professional golfer.
A few years ago, I tore my labrum in my right shoulder. Kind of sucked, obviously. I had been a person that played golf literally every day for my entire life. So for something like that to happen and then not get to play for seven or eight months was definitely a wild transition, but a lot of cool things came from that time off. Had a couple kids. Got to spend a lot of time at home with my wife. And built a golf course.
In old footage, a younger Zac sinks a long putt in a PGA event, and cheers erupt. Then stills of golf courses and of Zac playing golf flash by. Then several items with “TBC” logos are shown.
Zac: It really started right out of college when I got my PGA Tour® card. Gotta go to a lot of really cool places around the country. I was seeing a lot of cool clubs and golf courses. Stuff that I hadn’t really seen in Utah. And I got this idea of building a golf course in Utah for me and my friends. We were just calling it The Buck Club, but kept hitting little hurdles and roadblocks. I’m not a multibillionaire that can just fund the whole thing by myself, and it’s not just gonna be funded by selling hats and head covers and T-shirts. That’s where it turned into this idea of The Tree Farm here in Aiken, South Carolina.
Onscreen text:
The Tree Farm
Aiken, South Carolina
Zac: The big question for me was as a 30-year-old PGA Tour golfer, “Why can’t I build the best golf club in the world?”
Onscreen text:
Why can’t I build the best golf club in the world?
Zac: For me, a good golf club is about the people and the membership. The thing that all the members at The Tree Farm have in common is they love golf.
Several images of watercolors of a golf course flash by.
Zac: They believed in my vision even before the place was built, which was unique. I think it was a pretty old-school way of building the club. It was a bunch of people ponying up and buying into my vision and my dream. And so the whole membership are people that love golf.
Onscreen text:
I had conversations with everybody that got invited.
Zac: I had conversations with everybody that got invited. It was easy to tell if it was just another person trying to belong to another club versus somebody that really had a passion for the game and wanted to share a special place with guests or family members.
Jay Washburn: My name’s Jay Washburn, and I’m a member of The Tree Farm.
I joined the golf club before there was a golf course because of Zac. It was in his heart to build a great golf course. Not because he wanted to make money or because he wanted his name in lights, but because he wanted to build something. He loves golf. He loves golf courses. And he’s also someone who creates goals and then goes and accomplishes them. He’s a tour player. He’s decided to build this course, and it took him a long time, and it was a hard road, and he’s done it. He doesn’t give up. Now that I’ve seen the golf course, I’m stunned. The best pictures in my head, the drawings, whatever I’ve imagined—it’s even better. It’s big and beautiful and just fun.
Kye sits in a maintenance vehicle, wearing a Tree Farm hoodie.
Kye Goalby: It’s actually better than I thought it was ever going to be. My name is Kye Goalby. I’m a golf designer and shaper.
I think a lot of guys might think they could do it. What made Zac unique is he did this studying of the golf courses ahead of time. And when Zac first got out on the Tour, he wasn’t eligible to play in the Pro-Ams and had to do something on the Tuesdays of the event. And instead of going to the range and working on his game, he would go to a local golf course that was of architectural interest and go check that out.
I heard that he was at Hartford, and he drove to Pine Valley, which is probably about a four-hour drive. I don’t think a lot of guys are going to be doing that on their days off from the Tour.
Zac: Yeah, my first couple of years I would always try and scope out the best place around. See what makes it great. And was fortunate to go to a lot of cool places.
Kye: You meet Zac, and his age sorta becomes irrelevant. You know he’s young, but the passion he had and the knowledge he had, the energy that he has, it’s infectious. And I knew we could work together.
Zac [exclaiming at a friend’s good shot]: Oh, yes!
Kye: It starts with the land. Any good golf course—you need good land if you really want something great. So we had some really cool elevation changes, and they were severe. But with getting Tom Doak to help us with the routing, we were able to overcome the severity and actually utilize it and enhance the routing through that severity.
Zac: And I told Tom in the letter that I wrote him, “You can do whatever you want. It can be as quirky as you want, as short as you want. I’m not trying to build this championship-style golf course. I just wanted to make a fun place for people that loved golf.” I would’ve loved if it was like sub-70. I would’ve loved some weird, quirky, wild things. And then it just ended up being 18 really good holes.
Kye: Well, the first hole is a par-three. A lot of traditionalists in golf will think that's weird.
Zac: I think it's really unique and different, and people will definitely stand up to the first tee and know they're at The Tree Farm. The drivable par four at 18 was the only thing in the letter that was like non-negotiable to Tom. It was talking about North Berwick and just how fun it is to finish. Maybe making an eagle or an easy birdie instead of getting hit in the face and making a bogie or a double. That's what I wanted.
[After sinking a putt] There we go.
The coolest places I've ever been, the membership want to show it off to other people that love the game. And that was really the goal here—was making sure everyone feels like a member when they're here. Because you might only come one time in your whole life, and the last thing you want is someone to be like, “God, that experience wasn't good.” Hopefully, everyone thinks it's as good as I do.
Onscreen text:
This year Zac will finish up The Tree Farm
while competing in 25 events on the PGA Tour.
Ask questions. Be engaged.
[Charles Schwab logo]
Own your tomorrow®
Zac: Ultimately, the plan would be to take the proof of concept back to Utah and build The Buck Club. Yeah, that would be nice.
Onscreen text:
[Charles Schwab logo] [PGA Tour logo]
The Official Investment Firm
©2023 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0323-2Z8H)
Onscreen text:
Thanks to
The Tree Farm
Tom Doak
Kye Goalby
Drew King
Jay Washburn
Music ends.