- Kabul Golf Club
The Kabul Golf Club is a nine-hole
golf course located near Kargha, around 7 miles from the center ofKabul ,Afghanistan .Overview
Different from other golf courses in the Middle East where
desert golf is a new trend, the greens at the Kabul Golf Club are actually brown to black due to their composition of a mixture of sand andoil (which keeps the sand from blowing).cite news
url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0602/p01s04-wosc.html
title=If the golf greens are black, this must be Kabul
author=Scott Baldauf
date=June 2 2004
publisher=Christian Science Monitor
accessdate=2007-10-14] Plans for a modern irrigation system are moribund due to lack of funds.cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?hp
title=A Golf Course Where Water Is No Hazard
author=Kirk Semple
date=October 15 2007
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-10-14]Mainly affluent Afghans and foreigners frequent the course. The 2005 entrance fee for The Kabul Golf Club (http://www.kabulgolfclub.com) is 750 Afghani ($15 US Dollars) and a year membership is $300 (15,000 Afgahni). The club is run by Mohammad Afzal Abdul (also called Mohammed Bashir), its director and
golf pro , who worked as a caddy at the course as a young man before fleeing into exile inPakistan . Business has dropped off since opening as international agency staffing has declined.History
Originally six holes, the course opened in 1967 during the reign of
Mohammed Zahir Shah , was closed in 1978, and reopened in 2004. During these three decades it has undergone several changes. It was relocated to its present site in 1973 after the king was overthrown in acoup d'état and completely closed following a 1978 communist coup. It was reopened in 1993 but closed again in 1996 when theTaliban regime banned sports. After the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the course was used as an area for military training in the removal ofland mines . In the process of restoration to its present state, threeSoviet tank s and amultiple rocket launcher were removed by a nonprofit agency.In 2004 the Kabul Golf Club was reopened again. According to a report from the
Christian Science Monitor , “The final demining process was paid for by US military funds aimed at the disarmament of local warlords, but the profits actually end up in the hands of a warlord, a Northern Alliance commander named EngineerAbdul Rashid .”References
External links
* [http://www.kabulgolfclub.com/ Official website]
*cite news
url=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/good-shot-golf-in-a-war-zone-399681.html
title=Good shot: Golf in a war zone
publisher=The Independent
date=Friday,9 November 2007
accessdate=2008-02-20
quote=
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