A perpetual rough: sand, shells, "browns" of Libyan golf

October 30, 2013 2:00 AM 日本G25フェアウェイウッド

* Course is mostly empty save workers, scavenging dog

* Gunfire can break concentration, lower score

* Ousted leader Gaddafi discouraged golf

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

TRIPOLI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Among the rubbish-strewn bushes and occasional bullet shells on the rocky ground, nine flimsy flags flapping in the breeze mark the holes of a golf course along Tripoli's Mediterranean coast.

The occasional volley of automatic rifle fire in the distance is yet another of the unique "hazards", and a reminder of the chaos that still reigns in many parts of Libya.

The course is mostly empty except for a few workers building what one day may become a clubhouse and a dog sniffing discarded water bottles, fish bones and trash peppering the fairway.

This is not the lush greenery of Augusta or St Andrews but for Libya's golf fans the small course in the capital's upmarket Gargaresh area is one of a handful where they can get a game.

Libya, a desert state apart from its coastal north, has no grass courses, just sand ones where the distinction between fairway and rough is extremely tenuous.

A wilderness of rocks, bushes and rubbish - and now empty bullet shells following the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi - the course could be described as one perpetual rough.

"The first time I played after the revolution, you looked for your ball among pieces of metal, scrap, bullet cases," said David Bachmann, former commercial counsellor at the Austrian embassy in Tripoli.

"It was all kinds of weird things you would not normally expect in the rough of a golf course."

Drives streak across arrow-straight fairways from tees that consist of brick platforms covered with damp sand. Occasional wooden markers make it just possible to discern the boundaries between holes.

Given the lack of grass, players carry a small stretch of artificial turf on which they place their ball to take a shot.

The green itself is more like a "brown" - a patch of flattened damp sand that needs to be smoothed out after putting - with a cup for a hole. Sometimes gunfire rattles in the distance as fighting rages between armed groups.

"One morning, myself and a friend from the United Nations made it to the course in the quiet period after the previous night's shooting subsided and before it restarted," a Western diplomat formerly based in Tripoli said.

"I double-bogeyed the last hole with renewed gunfire interrupting my concentration."

DODGING CHICKENS AND CAMELS

While based in Tripoli this year, I played golf twice - once at Gargaresh, where I had to borrow my male playing partner's clubs because there was nowhere I could rent them from.

Taking my second shot by the sea, I was horrified when my ball hit a stone on the fairway and came flying back at us.

At Mudi golf course, a nine-hole par 36 some 50 kms (31 miles) west of Tripoli, a caddie was on hand to guide us.

Owner Abdullah Mudi said the course, boasting a driving range and clubhouse, had been built on farmland.

As I practiced, I waited as chickens passed the driving range before taking a shot. I later lost my ball on a hole which overlooked an orchard and got distracted by camels in a nearby pen.

Before the war, Mudi also had cows and ostriches but scarce resources during the fighting made it difficult to keep them. He says Gaddafi was not a fan of the sport and it was neglected.

"Gaddafi did not like golf and he didn't support the game," he said. "I sent my son to the Junior Open in 2008 to show the world Libya likes this game."

The Libyan Golf Federation, registered with the International Golf Federation, counts some 300 members in a country of more than six million people. Mudi said Libyan golfers usually compete in regional competitions.

"We don't get good positions - sometimes fourth place, fifth place - never first place," he said.

"I don't know if the government will support us. We've been saying we need a grass golf course to improve the game in Libya but nobody listens. There are many problems in the country."

Those are mainly security woes as the Tripoli authorities struggle to impose order on a country awash with weapons.

Before the war, Bachmann said expatriates drove to Djerba in neighbouring Tunisia to play on grass courses. Now, with their movements restricted and the border often shut, that is not so easy, although still very few play in Tripoli.

"The coastal geography is breathtaking and one could easily envision many courses in the future," the diplomat said. "For now it's for die-hards only who desperately need a golf fix." (Editing by Michael Roddy and Alistair Lyon)

Golf-Mickelson schedule cuts will come but not before majors

October 30, 2013 3:12 AM G25フェアウェイウッド

By Andrew Both

SHANGHAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Phil Mickelson plans to play in the week before each of the major championships next year despite making as yet unspecified cuts to his overall schedule for 2014, the British Open champion said on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old American said he would compete in Houston before the Masters, in Memphis before the U.S. Open, in Scotland before the British Open and in Akron before the PGA Championship.

Mickelson has clearly given particular thought to his preparations for the U.S. Open, the only major missing from his collection and a tournament where he has been runner-up six times.

Victory at the Pinehurst No. 2 course next June would make him only the sixth player to complete the modern Grand Slam and he is determined not to go to North Carolina underprepared.

"I like to have a three-week stretch heading into the majors, although (next year the lead-up to the US Open) will be the only three-week stretch," he said on the eve of the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament.

"Playing Memphis the week before is very helpful (because) they are very similar grasses as Pinehurst, with the exception of the greens.

"So I plan to play Memphis (St Jude Classic) and I plan to play Memorial the week before that and I'll have some time in Pinehurst prior to that."

Left unsaid was which tournaments the five-times major winner would scrap, although his comments suggested the PGA Tour's season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs might be on the chopping block.

"It really took a lot out of me these last couple of months where we played nine out of 12 weeks, and it was difficult for me to get the proper preparation for each tournament," he added.

"I don't want to enter a tournament where I feel unprepared, and that's the baseline I'm going to use as I build my schedule next year."

The success U.S. Masters champion and world number two Adam Scott has enjoyed since cutting his schedule to the bone has not escaped the attention of his rivals.

While Mickelson has the latitude to make cuts, European players such as Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, who play both the European and PGA Tours, do not have as much room for manoeuvre if they want to remain eligible for the Ryder Cup.

"I know every decision that Adam Scott makes is based around what is going to help him leave a legacy and win more major championships," said U.S. Open champion Rose.

"He's pretty ruthless with that decision-making and it's paid off. (Cutting back) is something I'm trying to find the right balance to."

Poulter, like Mickelson a former winner of the HSBC Champions, said his eccentric dress sense would be on display at a similar number of tournaments next year.

"I won't be changing my schedule an awful lot," he said. "I'll still maintain my two cards and I need to do that because obviously I want to play the Ryder Cup." (Editing by Nick Mulvenney)