Meet Tara Mactaggart: Sponsored by The Borders Distillery

Hello all… my name is Tara Mactaggart, and I am a professional golfer sponsored in part by The Borders Distillery. Golf has always been part of my life from growing up in Hawick from playing the HSBC Wee Wonders to now playing on the Ladies European/Access Tour, my journey has been very similar to lots of others but thankfully I have managed to continue chasing the dream of becoming a professional and carry on playing the sport I love.

It all started back in Hawick, my hometown, at a course called Minto Golf Club where I spent endless hours after school practicing and learning my craft as they say. Minto is a small club in the Scottish Borders, but a hidden gem and one thing is for sure you will certainly have a workout walking up and down the course. From those days of first learning to play in junior 6 hole competitions, I progressed through what many people would say is the standard route; playing for my Club, County and then Scotland, before deciding to attend the University of Stirling on a golf scholarship.

This is perhaps where things became less obvious how I have ended up as a professional golfer. Many other players that I grew up playing golf with accepted scholarships to Colleges overseas, but at the time that wasn’t for me, albeit the weather was probably better than a Scottish winter. However, this is where Dean Robertson, the Head Coach of the performance program at the University of Stirling, and now a long term friend, gave me an opportunity at one of the most up and coming universities to challenge the norm of what has been perceived as the standard route to professional golf. The experiences I gained from this, and the friends I made, was second to none and I wouldn’t change this for anything.

I don’t think you need to have played this game for long until realising it is never straight forward, and there has certainly been an element of that throughout my golfing career. Despite showing the signs of a future professional golfer early on, it never really happened for me at University, and then inevitably comes the decision as to do you go for it, or does ‘real life’ kick in. For me, it was the latter, but one thing never changed regardless, my love of the game and the fact I still wanted to be involved in the game somehow.

A short stint at Archerfield Golf Links, situated on Scotland’s golfing coast, was where I landed post graduation from Stirling. I mentioned earlier that this game isn’t straight forward, and sometimes the most progression happens at the most unlikely of time. While working at Archerfield hosting golf events, my golfing career took a turn, whether it was due to the renewed enjoyment of getting out on the hallowed links before or after normal working hours or that I began to have some good results and a couple of wins under my belt, I was playing great golf and gained a new found confidence. This confidence was then hit by the pandemic. This wasn’t an easy time for anyone, the uncertainty as to what was going to happen next, certainly my own job was impacted being involved in the hospitality sector, however, as many experienced, there were some blessings in disguise during this time and for me it led to one of the biggest life decisions I have ever made. The pandemic made me realise that I had an opportunity, one that I always dreamt of when I was younger, standing on that range at Minto thinking one day I want to be a professional golfer, and with the improvements in my own golf that was a distinct possibility.

People always say, you should walk before you can run, but this was one decision I decided to skip both these steps and jump straight in. And so, I made the decision to turn professional. Now, none of this would be possible without my sponsors, and the Borders Distillery have supported me from day one and were my first sponsor, and for this, I am extremely grateful to them for believing in me and my career and it truly is an honour to have their logo on my top.

I have only had one season playing as a professional and I am about to start my second year and the experiences from that will need their own blog for sure.

As I mentioned earlier, golf isn’t always straight forward, and that is the beauty of the game but in the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take…