Iga Świątek’s foundation gives Polish golf a boost

Sixteen-year-old Jan Pyla is about to take a major step into professional golf, and Iga Świątek’s new foundation is already claiming one of its first visible successes. The young player will compete from Thursday at the Rosa Challenge Tour 2026, Poland’s most important professional golf tournament.

Junior golfers rarely appear in the Rosa Challenge Tour field. Pyla reached it through the narrow route offered by the 5 Stars Junior Cup by Adrian Meronk, winning the qualifying series known as Race to Rosa. The Kraków Valley Golf and Country Club player will now face professionals in an international event far above the level of ordinary junior competition.

Pyla became one of the five inaugural scholarship recipients of the Iga Świątek Foundation after being chosen from more than 200 applications. He is a member of Poland’s national team and the national under-18 runner-up. In 2024, he won the Polish under-15 title and the respected Audi Junior Tour Masters. Those achievements helped earn him a personal phone call from Świątek.

Świątek has also shown an interest in golf. She recently shared images from a spring visit to a golf course in Rome before a WTA 1000 tournament, playing left-handed despite holding a tennis racket in her right hand. Her coach, Francisco Roig, also plays golf, while Rafael Nadal is described as a strong amateur golfer.

The Rosa Challenge Tour, held at Rosa Golf Club in Konopiska near Częstochowa from September 3 to 6, offers prize money and ranking points that can help the best players reach the DP World Tour. As an amateur, Pyla will not receive a share of the 300,000 euros reserved for professionals, but the experience of playing at that level could prove invaluable. Seven other Polish players will join him in the 156-player field: Oskar Zaborowski, Maksymilian Biały, Michał Bargenda, Antoni Fijałkowski, Nikolas Tymiński, Jan Rybczyński and Konstanty Łuczak.