THE course may leave a lot to be desired, and the hazards are far greater than mere bunkers and water obstacles, but if you’ve ever hankered to win a national Open golf tournament, now’s your chance.

Four years after the fall of the Taleban, the Kabul Desert Classic opened yesterday in the scrubland outside the Afghan capital. Indeed, it is the first tournament held here since the Soviet invasion of 1979.

The competition drew 28 entrants, mostly expatriates working for various aid agencies and private companies. The organisers hope to attract the odd professional next year, but the closest they got yesterday was a former state champion — female — of Minnesota.

The nine-hole course, the only one in Afghanistan, is seven miles from Kabul and surrounded by burnt-out Soviet tanks.

Like much of Afghanistan, the area was mined during the war years, so Andrew Fimister, who used to clear landmines with the Halo Trust, a British charity, steps gingerly between strokes. “I heard that there were mines here and that the UN cleared them. But they could have missed some,” he says.

The course has no greens because of lack of rain. It has “blacks” instead; sand smoothed down with oil. The fairways are rough and players hit off AstroTurf patches they carry with them.

“It’s a tricky old green to read. There are footprints all over the place. It’s like playing on the Moon,” says Ian Holland, 38, an aid co-ordinator from Sidmouth, Devon. Approaching the fifth hole, he had narrowly missed a group of picnicking Afghans with his drive. As he lined up his putt, a flock of sheep trailed past.

“Welcome to golf Afghanistan-style,” exclaimed Hallam Ferguson, 27, a New Yorker in a loud shirt and Panama hat who had helped in the preparations for last Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Groups of local men loitered, watching the spectacle, although whether they were more interested in the golf or the Western women in revealing tops was unclear.

“I can’t believe what’s going on,” said Muhammad Akbar, 20, before his picnicking party was ushered out of the way by a security guard with an AK47.

Another player was Van Auburn, 58, from New Mexico, who was schooled in Kabul between 1961 and 1966 and has now returned as a tourist. “I learnt to play golf here but I never thought I’d get to play in Kabul again,” he said.

The competition raised nearly £2,250 for a local children’s home. John Dempsey, a 34-year-old American and one of the organisers, said: “The course is great fun. It’s not like anything back home. I went to grab a six-iron from the set they gave me and it didn’t have one. I had three seven-irons though. The clubs look like they are from the 1930s.”

The caddies were delighted. “I’ve never seen so many people here,” said Abdul Bashir, 14. “It’s great to have foreigners playing. When I see this I am very happy for the future.”

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