WALVIS BAY, Namibia - 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.

Namibian Manfred Geinub plays a shot on a roadside desert golf track in Walvis Bay, Namibia May 16, 2006. 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. [Reuters]

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.

Alec Williams, director of golf at the country club in the capital city Windhoek, said interest in golf was growing fast among Nambia's youth.

The development program at the Windhoek course could not keep up with the new "wannabe" Woods.

"There is definitely growing interest and we are trying to help with development as much as possible," he said.

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