Destination Vacation Anyone?

Believe it or not, there's actually a golf course here on the edge of the desert just outside of the city. We've driven by it plenty of times, but I've never stopped to try it out. A few weeks ago, one of our co-workers had a birthday and his wife asked some of us to take him golfing. He's been here a long time and had never tried the course either. This is our group at the "club house". Get ready for a unique adventure.

The course is actually very well laid out. Here's the tee box on the first hole. In the background you can see the pavilion for the driving range.


The course is on a plateau that is laterite rock, which is very hard. You definitely don't want to take a swing with the ball sitting directly on the ground or your clubs would be hurting. Instead, you have to tee the ball up for every shot. We played on a weekday morning, so the owner wasn't around to provide the special rubber tees. We had to make do with whatever we could find... a few plastic bottle caps, a piece of rubber rolled up, some cardboard rolled up... The fairways are marked on either side with large rocks that are painted green.

Most of the year, there are no water traps. We also don't have deep rough or woods in which to lose a ball. There are some unique obstacles, though. Here are the remaining stalks from crops (probably millet).


There's also the occasional herd of goats or sheep that cross the fairway. Donkeys, cows and camels also frequent the course.

The "greens" are nicely oiled sand and well groomed. You can see the caddy pulling the flag out of the hole. You have to take some caddies along with you. They were pretty helpful for finding our way around the course and carrying the clubs. Most of us fall into the "hacker" category for golfers, but we had a good time. We played the first nine holes before we ran out of time and it got too hot. So there you have it... you can now include the Niamey Golf Club at Rio Bravo as one more attraction to see during your next destination vacation. Oh yeah, there's also an airstrip next to the course.