Kabul Golf Club

Kabul Golf Club

The Kabul Golf Club is a nine-hole golf course located near Kargha, around 7 miles from the center of Kabul, 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 and oil (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 in Pakistan. 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 a coup d'état and completely closed following a 1978 communist coup. It was reopened in 1993 but closed again in 1996 when the Taliban regime banned sports. After the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the course was used as an area for military training in the removal of land mines. In the process of restoration to its present state, three Soviet tanks and a multiple 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 Engineer Abdul 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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