Golf in the Sands of Namibia

Golf can take hold in the most unlikely of places, capturing the imagination and leading the young to dream. For example, in Namibia, where desert covers much of the country, unemployment is the rule and grass is a luxury:

Elen Gubeb's tattered sandals and torn jeans don't match his pricey new Mizuno glove, but dress is not important at this home-made golf track on Namibia's desert coast, an unlikely golf hotspot.

The 20-year-old part-time caddy practices with a classic swing as the first of a group of eight players tees off from a small rocky mound nearby.

The nine-hole course dubbed the "West Side Club" has no greens or tees, water or grass. Stinging sand and gusts of wind whistle through a lone row of palm trees on the edge of the forbidding Namib desert.

"I don't work, I just play golf everyday," says Gubeb, one of thousands of youths unable to find permanent work in the poor southern African nation.

The Namib, the world's oldest living desert, and the barren Skeleton Coast limit employment options in the former German colony that for decades was under the control of neighboring South Africa.

The terrain also makes for tough golfing country, although this has not discouraged the West Side Club irregulars.

"I eat golf, dream golf, sleep golf, everything in my mind is golf," says Christof Kuludu, 23, his excited eyes peering out from beneath a blue hat.

"Sometimes I imagine myself as Ernie Els or Tiger Woods, I use my imagination and love it," he adds in faltering English, clutching his Nike shirt.

Read the whole thing.