Sven Slopianka recently joined the GolfTEC Englewood team in North Jersey as a Certified Personal Coach. In this post, Sven briefly talks about his past experience in Europe before moving to New Jersey.
I joined the PGA of Germany in 1991 and completed the five-year education program to gain my Class A, fully-qualified professional status. During that time and for a few years after, I tried to play and gain status on the European Tour. Mainly, I played on the European Challenge Tour, the equivalent to the Nationwide Tour here in the U.S. I went into some European Tour events but never made a good category there. Not making enough money on the tour, I transitioned to working as Head Professional at a number of private courses such as Schloss Nippenburg, a PGA European Tour course.
In 2003, I stepped away from the golf business and made my other passion in life, sailing, my profession. One of my last sponsors on the European Challenge Tour was planning on buying a Superyacht, and knowing that sailing was my other passion, he gave me the captain position on his sailing yacht. That was the beginning of my second career.
For the next seven years I skippered sailing yachts around the world. During that time I crossed the Atlantic Ocean four times and made a complete circumnavigation of the African continent. My last captain position was in 2008, on a 145-foot, 3-mast schooner 400 T, in the Mediterranean. We visited all the Formula 1 races and had a lot of celebrities as guests onboard.
Now I am settling down with my wife in New Jersey. I wanted a job back in the golf industry, teaching or playing. So here I am having fun teaching golf in a profound way at GolfTEC.
If you happen to be in the New Jersey area, feel free to stop by GolfTEC Englewood and say hi to Sven (and maybe even talk a little sailing). Comments or questions for Sven? Leave them below. He’d love to hear from you.
