WALVIS BAY, Namibia, May 29 - 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 practises 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 neighbouring 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 programme 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.
Williams is the only golf professional offering coaching in Namibia, but free
golf balls and old sets of clubs are sent through to smaller towns, such as port
city Walvis Bay.
