THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Golf has returned to Afghanistan. The Guardian gives us an article on the re-opening of the Kabul Golf Club.

The greens are oily brown, the fairways have been swept for mines and the owner is a retired warlord. A rusting Russian tank looks down on the first tee. Only the rough lives up to its name. Welcome to Kabul Golf Club, wryly described on its scorecard as "the best and only golf course in Afghanistan".

"Take cover!" was once a more appropriate warning than "fore!" on these fairways, which have been dragged haplessly into Afghanistan's various wars. After the Soviet invasion of 1979 soldiers dug a deep trench by the sixth hole and sunk a tank into the seventh. Shells whistled overhead as rival mujahideen factions settled bloody scores years later. In the 1990s the black-turbaned Taliban tortured the club professional.

But like a fighter who refuses to go down, Kabul Golf Club is open for business again. Yesterday it made a quirky addition to the achievements of post-war Afghanistan - it hosted its first charity golf classic. St Andrews it was not. A violent dust storm delayed play. Then 14 teams hacked their way across the yellowed, weed-strewn fairways, dodging herds of sheep.

The players - mostly diplomats, aid workers and businessmen - were handed an advisory sheet of "special techniques" for completing the nine holes. "Attack the course!" counselled the first tip. "Play aggressively. Don't even ask for a stroke index because this is Afghanistan and they're all tough."

The defiant attitude permeated the play in aid of Ashiana, a local orphanage. "I have no security clearance so I'm not supposed to be here," declared one United Nations worker with a chipper smile. "Screw that!"

Not exactly the hushed, manicured elegence of Augusta. I wonder if Tiger Woods could make par here?