FAMILY SILVER

How did Sabbatini end up playing for Slovakia?

The idea, originally, was Rastislav Antala’s. Antala is now the president of the Slovak Golf Association and in 2015 he approached his cousin and Sabbatini’s now wife, Martina, about the possibility of Sabbatini taking Slovak citizenship. Then in 2018 he brought the subject up again, with the idea of the Olympics sparking more interest and growth in the game. Sabbatini was then given a very quick ultimatum to get the paperwork done and, in December 2018, it was announced he had secured Slovakian citizenship.

“The week after Tokyo we saw a major uptake in kids being interested in golf in Slovakia. That was kind of the goal all along – to get people interested in the game of golf in Slovakia,” explains Sabbatini.

“There are only something like 26 courses and 9,000 registered golfers in Slovakia. If we could get at least a 50 per cent increase, that would be promising. The biggest thing now is to try and get the government and some private corporations involved in building a course and an academy, like they did in Sweden.”