Having players like Ernie Els and Vijay Singh has height­ened the credibility of the Fiji International Presented By Fiji Airways, says Jason Norris.

Last year’s Fiji International win­ner said it was a great thrill to be back playing with two big names in the game who continue to lift the profile of the sport.

“It’s all happening here. The weather’s perfect and the course is great so it’s just awesome to be back,”he said.

Norris agreed he was pleased to come back as defending champion to a tournament like this.

“I’ve defended secondary tour events and it’s great fun, but this is the next level and it’s just good to be back and so much media is al­ways good for us.

“I’m not Ernie Els, so it’s a bit of fun for me. It’s just really good to be back and be in the spirit of Fiji.”

Norris said this year’s tourna­ment had a great field.

“Ernie’s come over and obvi­ously Vijay’s back again, which two world class players obviously we’ve all grown up with.

“It’s a thrill to be playing with them and it’s good to see Austral­ian golf and Fiji golf with such good players.”

Norris said coming back to Nat­adola will definitely help him as he was presently trying to find some form.

“Definitely. You have good vibes going through your body, you have good feelings, and it’s always good to come back to where you’ve played well. I’m really looking for­ward to getting out there and just doing it again.”

On his injury, Norris said it started coming good the last three weeks to a month, which was good for obviously this week and the re­mainder of the year, but he strug­gled early on in the year.

“I had a few sprained facet joints. It’s not good for golf, the rota­tion and everything, so the more I played, the worst it got, so it’s re­ally hard to keep on top of it.”

“I had only one good event in Asia. Other than that, it’s been a bit of a struggle with the travel and a lot of golf. Just been working hard in the gym and trying to get it rolling.”

“Well, my goal was to finish off my career in Asia, so I’m looking forward to getting there maybe next year or maybe the year after, depending how I go in Europe.

“So I’m really looking forward to getting out there and they have some great events in nice places.”

On the course at Natadola, Norris said he had been told it was in bet­ter condition than last year, which he said was amazing.

“The new greens have settled in and in fantastic condition I’ve heard. But it’s one of my favourite golf courses, so I’ve said that be­fore I won, I said it after I won. It’s definitely a great golf course and look forward to getting out there.”

“Sometimes the wind can be com­pletely different when you play, so as far as looking at the course with a certain wind, it doesn’t really matter.”

“If you’re playing well, the wind doesn’t affect you. It’s when you’re off the wind really affects you. Last year I obviously played pretty good and the wind didn’t bother me for a couple of rounds, but the weekend was really good last year. I think it’s a course where you al­ways get wind and you have to play good shots in the wind.”

Edited by Osea Bola

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