Directed by and starring Lasse Åberg, Den ofrivillige golfaren is a Swedish film about an unassuming sanitation worker who gets roped into a high-stakes golf match against an arrogant businessman and has just one week to learn how to play golf.

The comedy follows Åberg to Scotland where he takes lessons from a veteran golf professional before squaring up for his eagerly awaited match.

Released in Swedish cinemas in 1991, the film – which was inspired by the golf stories of PG Wodehouse – translates into The Accidental Golfer in English and has proved to be one of the most successful films ever made in Sweden.

And should Åberg ever contemplate a sequel, then perhaps The Accidental Golf Director might be worthy of consideration, with Radomír Holecka possibly starring as the leading man.

Growing up in Bratislava in Slovakia, golf was alien to Holecka , so when asked how he today manages arguably the best golf resort in the region, he simply laughs and says, “It’s weird, I know.

“In 1995, my Mum went to America on a business trip, and returned with a set of golf clubs and I remember asking her what they hell they were. I was 15 at the time, and I’d never seen a golf ball, yet alone a set of golf clubs,” he laughs.

“I finished high school and went to university in Slovakia studying economics, but as that didn’t really capture my imagination, I decided to switch to IT. This was around 1995 when the Internet was kicking-in, so it seemed to make sense.

“Aged 21, I travelled to Australia to study and spent two-and-a-half years there and had a great time. I joined a band, and we performed around Australia and I had the time of my life.”

It was around this time, that Holecka made his first foray into the sport as he explains: “I knew about golf but wasn’t really attracted to the sport until a friend of mine invited me to a driving range one day.

“I started playing and fell in love. I didn’t have any lessons, so started chipping, then driving before going out onto the local courses. There was rarely anyone on them when I played, and I loved it.

“As I started to uncover all aspects of the game, I found not one but a whole bunch of interests in the sport, so decided that working in golf management would be a great career choice.”

Albeit arriving late to the industry compared to most of his peers – many of whom had tried, and failed by this point, to make it on Tour – Holecka stresses that his career choice was no accident.

“I love the landscape of a golf course, especially some of the courses in New Zealand which look like botanical gardens. Plus, as I have a keen interest in hospitality management – particularly contemporary clubhouses with modern eateries – coupled with more than a passing interest in golf technology and travel, a career working in golf seemed to be a perfect fit.

“It appeared that the whole ambience surrounding a golf course tended to be relaxed and stress-free… of course, now I know it’s completely different,” he smiles.

Holecka spent three years studying golf management at the University of Central Lancashire, before returning to Bratislava in 2008 although he candidly admits that he wasn’t quite sure what – or where – he wanted to work.

With golf participation in Slovakia not exactly thriving at the time, Holečka created Golf Club SSG, which as he explains, was a national programme for the development of the game, with a particular focus on youth development.

“Working with SSG college in Bratislava, I was invited to create a golf management program which, after a year-and-a-half, was accepted as a National Scholar Program across all colleges in Slovakia, something I am very proud of. Without my friend, golf professional Steven Hughes, we would not have succeeded, so I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.”

It’s unclear if Holecka gave golf lessons, but his enthusiasm and dedication helped expand the programme to Greece, Turkey and Florida and he still retains some involvement.

His stock was clearly rising within Slovakian golfing circles, so when Penati Golf Resort opened in 2012, Holecka was the perfect candidate to assume the role of director of golf, a position he still holds today.

Covering over 217 hectares of, breathtaking scenery in Slovakia’s Záhorie region situated less than an hour from the nation’s capital, Bratislava, Penati features 36-holes including the Nicklaus Studio-designed Legend Course which boasts the longest hole in Central Europe – a 712 metre (778 yard) masterpiece that can be played as either a par 5 or 6.

The Legend Course culminates with a challenging short par 4 onto an island green located in front of the clubhouse.

The second course at Penati, the Heritage Course, is located amidst breathtaking scenery of pine forests on land interspersed with white sand dunes. Designed by Jonathan Davison the Heritage Course follows Scottish traditions.

Holecka joined Penati a few months prior to the opening of Legend Course, at a time when golf participation was low with just 300 members pre-opening.

“The clubhouse wasn’t built, and the Heritage Course was under construction at the time,” he recalls. “Back then, we didn’t have enough members to break even, and the oversees market knew nothing about us, so we had to literally drag people by the hand to Penati to show them in person what we had to offer. It took a good three years to establish the club, but by 2015, people in the region had learned more about us, and life started to get a little better.”

With 992 members now, Holecka and his team at Penati have overseen a three-fold increase in membership. “We’re getting close to 1,000 members now,” he said, “which is the type of business that we need, especially with the ever-expanding residential part of the resort. That boomed during COVID as nobody could travel and as a result, currently have 300 built around the resort, plus some smaller properties by the lake.”

Although Holecka admits that 85 per cent of rounds played are of domestic origin, the growth in tourism is something which is slowly evolving, especially since Penati joined worldclass.golf in 2020.

Accommodating international guests for the 2024 season will be far easier come May, when eight new boutique guest suites are opened in the clubhouse. “We’re looking to cater for the domestic and overseas market and offer an experience which is unmatched elsewhere in the region,” he enthuses.

Aged 43, and with a young family, Holecka is content at Penati, although after giving 12 years to the project, one senses that curiosity may one day get the better of him.

“I’m really happy at Penati, and especially love the environmental work that we do here,” he admits. “With what we’ve all achieved here, it would take something very special for me to consider moving away, especially as Penati is just 90km away from my hometown and I love the climate here.

“I’m a little bit of a summer person, as probably all golfers are, so if an opportunity came up in a southern climate, then I would consider the challenge. But it would have to be something worth taking the family with me for.”

Until then, assuming that Holecka and his family are even tempted away, Penati remains home. And should Lasse Åberg consider that long-awaited sequel to The Accidental Golfer, he’d be well advised to set it as far away from Sweden or Scotland as possible, as one assumes, the weather will be far too cold for Holecka .