• www.standrews.org.uk
• www.worldgolfhalloffame.org
• www.golfforcause.com
• www.thebraidsociety.com
• www.alistermackenzie.co.uk
• www.donaldross.org
• www.asgca.org

Keeper of the Royal Ball
By Taba Dale, September 22, 2009

Duke of York ready to hit his tee shot.

Magical.

On a distant shore, on a distant land, it happened.

The sky was leaden. The wind was uncharacteristically calm. It was moisturish, as they say in Machrihanish.

Although it is so remote, golfers like me eagerly make the pilgrimage to play the pure links course called Machrihanish Golf Club. Situated on the Kintyre peninsula of western Scotland, on a clear day you can even make out the coast of Northern Ireland.

During the summer of 2005, I made the journey to play in Ireland, to attend The Open Championship in St. Andrews and hope to see Tiger take home the Claret Jug for a second time. He accommodated me.

Before I left Machrihanish, it provided something amazing to punctuate my golf odyssey. It was supposed to be a secret, but the whole town was atwitter. The isolated village of Machrihanish is little more than a single street. The region once boasted as many as 28 distilleries—now there is just one single-malt bottled: Springbank.

Right on schedule, at 5pm, the entourage of black Range Rovers made their way to the car park.

I was hurrying to finish my round and claim my spot on the wee bit of grass on this soon-to-be-royal teeing ground. The opening hole at Machrihanish is considered by many to be one of the best in the world. Your daunting tee shot must carry at least 150 yards over the Atlantic Ocean—for the men, more like 200 yards.

We waited patiently until at last Prince Andrew emerged from one of the Rovers. Known to be a very keen golfer, he came to hit a few ceremonial balls off the new “Tiger Tee,” recently carved out of a tiny spit of land, below and behind the small golf shop.

The town worthies and Captain of the Club welcomed him heartily on the narrow tee, bestowing a bottle of Springbank Whisky and a box of Machrihanish-logoed balls. Finally the time came for Prince Andrew to tee up the first ball and he asked, “Does anyone have a tee?”

Having just come off the course, I waved and said, “I do!” He graciously took the tee.

As it was low tide, a man and his dog were strolling on the beach. With natural bonhomie, the Prince noted, “Right, that man and his dog are now in danger!” He fired off three powerful drives. They all found the fairway. Quietly, a little boy was dispatched to go and retrieve them.

While the camaraderie and picture-taking continued, we all basked in the glow of this magical moment. The Prince then asked, “Whose tee is this?” I raised my hand and said, “You can keep it,” but he insisted on giving it back to me and placed it gently in my palm.

Having been touched by royalty was certainly enough to make my day, but then another amazing thing happened. A friend within the circle of officials secretly passed me one of the golf balls.

As the fog settled in, we made our way to the warm clubhouse where the men huddled around the Prince. I sat by myself relishing the moment when I became forever the Keeper of the Royal Ball.




Passion For Golf & Travel Lead to a True Life Partner
By Taba Dale, October 13, 2009

Taba & Kevin at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland

Five years ago in October 2004, almost to the day, I met the man of my dreams, but did not know it at the time.

I was asked by a dear friend to run a charity golf event in memory of his oldest daughter who had died of breast cancer in February of 2004. My friend, who was Scottish, was trying to help raise money for the White Lily Fund, a Glasgow-based organization that funds breast cancer research and awareness in the west of Scotland.

He went to his close friend, Pat Ruddy, owner and designer of The European Club, south of Dublin, Ireland and asked for a tee time to auction off at a White Lily Golf Day in May, just a few months after his daughter died.

Pat, being the incredibly bighearted man that he is, said “One tee time is not enough, I will give you the whole course.” It was I who was asked to run the entire event, which I did from my home base in the Washington, DC area.

The date Pat gave us was October 3rd, It was a full-time job for 5 solid months, but I was honored to be asked and it allowed me to grieve myself and do something significant to memorialize the sweet soul whose light was extinguished way too soon.

From gathering all the auction items, collecting all the entry fees, ordering all the engraved trophies, booking all the hotel rooms and selecting the menu for the gala dinner on October 2, 2004, I kept myself busy sweating every detail, an ocean away from this World Top-100 Rated course by the Irish Sea (whose course record is currently held by Tiger Woods.)

With 70 or so people traveling over to Ireland from Scotland, England, Wales, Germany, and the U.S., there was a lot of information to keep track of, including the team members names and their handicaps. One generous fellow, who paid the entry fee, but could not fly over, arranged to send someone in his place. His name was Kevin McGrath.

It was easy to find a team needing a fourth player, but where to seat him during the gala dinner? As it turned out, I put Kevin right next to me on my right. I remembered him saying how privileged he felt to be at my table, and other than learning that he was born in Dublin and now lived in the southwest of Ireland, I hardly had any more time to chat, as during the live auction, I was constantly out of my seat providing the winning bidder with a certificate and recording their payment—as these were the important donations!

The night was as festive as it could be under the circumstances, and also very emotional, as the founders of the White Lily, the father, mother, stepfather and sister of the deceased young lady were all there, and it was impossible to hold back the tears—and is even now as I write this.

By the spring of 2005, I had gotten the inspiration to launch my own travel venture. As I continued to relive adventures while playing golf in Scotland and Ireland for the last couple of years—especially on pure links courses, I was motivated to share my many exhilarating, uplifting, fun, joy-giving experiences with other women. During my travels, I saw scores of men reveling in their great golf vacations and thought women would love these experiences too, if they only knew how to do it.

I fished out Kevin’s card from a stack of papers, as I vaguely remembered it saying something like “golf travel consultant.” I rang him up in Ireland and asked if he would consider being my travel partner, and much to my delight he said YES!

Although I didn’t generate many bookings at first, it gave me an excellent opportunity to get to know him on a business level. I discovered that he was very reliable, professional knowledgeable, and operated with utmost integrity—all pleasantly blended with his endearing accent, charming personality and sense of humor.

By August of 2006, I finally managed to live my dream and move to Scottsdale, Arizona! The travel bug bit me while I was just a teenager, but having taken up golf late in life (nearly 50!), my passion for golf was growing to the extent that I really wanted to BE IN a golf culture. I fell in love with the desert on my first visit here in the 1980’s, and am truly blessed now to call it my home.

When I got word that Kevin would be in Scottsdale on a golf trip with a group of his Irish pals in October of 2008, I suggested he stay on for a week or two when the others went home. And that’s when it happened. Magic!

So now, along with being in the tour operator business together, we have discovered that we are “true life partners” as Kevin says. It just doesn’t get any better than that—when you find that you are on the same wavelength and can share your passion for golf, travel, fine dining and good wine, meeting fascinating and inspiring people—and now, after 5 years, it is all rolled into a beautiful relationship that intensifies the joy of living.

On my most recent trip to Ireland last month, we not only played 11 rounds in 14 days (including The European Club where we first met!), we did site visits at some incredible properties including Mount Falcon on 100 acres of woodlands, encompassing 2 miles of the River Moy—known the world over for salmon fishing–in County Mayo. This palatial home was built as a gift in1876 for Ultred Knox to give to his new bride. We also luxuriated at the 5-Star Lough Erne Golf Resort in Northern Ireland, where we played the breathtaking new Faldo course twice! Although not a links course, it is exceptional.

As our Ryder Cup 2010 golf trips include several different itineraries in Ireland, Kevin thought it was important for me to be more familiar with all these first-class golf courses, spectacular landscapes, unique and tasteful accommodations, and I just had to agree with my true life partner - how could I not?

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