The Fijian Government will support improvement at the Natadola Bay Championship Golf Course.

Acting Prime Minister, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made the assurance while closing the 2015 Fijian International yesterday.

He said the Government, and the Fijian National Provident Fund, would make sure improvements were done.

The Provident Fund owns the Natadola property.

“In the tourism industry, there are many segments and golf is obviously one of the critical segments which Fiji has not developed very well,” he said.

“In some countries, they have mastered to attract a lot of people in this segment. The Fijian Government has seen the benefits in that and has provided the funding for the Fijian International.”

He said there was plenty of land owned by FNPF at Natadola.

“So what better way than to have a high profile international tournament which obviously will gather more momentum and then attract people who can then buy land and build homes,” he said.

“If they build homes it creates jobs and it lifts  the value of the land, not just the property itself but also around here in Sanasana.

“It makes the iTaukei land more attractive. So it has a huge multiply effect that is very critical.

“The course needs a bit more tweaking with its design to make it more player-friendly. At the moment there are a lot of balls getting lost in the rough.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the whole idea was to get more people coming back again to take advantage of the scene.

He also congratulated winner Matt Kuchar, and ‘Big Fijian’ Vijay Singh.

“We have a new winner this year and our very own Vijay Singh who came in third,” he said.

“The winner is today here with his family and will go back and tell about his experience. So they become brand ambassador of Fiji too and we must get Fijian International to be more and more part of the international circuit.”

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