In a country where rugby dominates the national heartbeat, it is easy to forget that, at times, Fiji’s sporting dreams have also stretched far beyond the try line.
On October 2, 1999, The Fiji Times reported on two local professional golfers, Manoa Rasigatale and Dharam Prakash, who were quietly preparing for a shot at the Golf World Cup — and a possible payday of $1.5 million.
The pair were bound for Kuala Lumpur in Indonesia, where they would compete in the World Cup qualifying round, a 54-hole tournament scheduled for October 8 to 10 at the Kota Permai Golf Club. Only four teams from the Eastern Zone would qualify for the main World Cup event.
Fiji Professional Golfers Association treasurer Harry Chand believed the two had a genuine chance.
“Compared to previous years, they had a better chance than with the zonal play-offs,” Chand said.
“There was lots of money for grabs, but they had to get through the first obstacle.”
Twenty countries were contesting the Eastern Zone, including China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Republic of Korea and Papua New Guinea, making the task anything but easy.
Both Rasigatale and Prakash were no strangers to international competition, having represented Fiji in four World Cup qualifying rounds. Fiji’s only appearance at the World Cup had come in 1996, when Prakash teamed up with Vilikesa Kalou in Florida.
Selection, Chand said, was based on “money earnings” on the local circuit. “We were somewhere in the middle order out of 40 golfers,” Prakash said.
Rasigatale had turned professional in 1989 and was fresh off a President’s Cup win, while Prakash, a former Sportsman of the Year nominee, had claimed the same title from 1994 to 1996 — proof that, even in rugby-mad Fiji, other sporting ambitions quietly thrived.
