In pics | Burkina Faso's half a century old eco-friendly golf course

Located in the landlocked Sahel country, Burkina Faso's only golf course at the Ouagadougou Golf Club has 18-hole and two nine-hole courses all which are certified by the French golf federation, said a report by AFP. The aerial view of the golf course shows it's "browns" which is a mixture of sand bonded with old motor oil to provide a level if rather crumbly surface. 

In an interview with AFP, the club's president (also seen in the image) Salif Samake said, "Water is a very rare resource in Burkina Faso. Here we play golf in a natural setting...What we have here is a model that can be exported to other countries." He also conceded that the ball does not roll as well as it does on grass and putting is also "a bit more complicated". 

"You do have to rake it (the brown) to remove the small stones, because if the ball hits one, it can bounce off in any direction", said Samake to AFP. 

Ouagadougou Golf Club was founded in 1975 and is situated amid buildings on the outskirts of the Burkinabe capital. The golf course here does not have "greens" but "browns".

It takes an average of 5,000 cubic metres of water per day to run an 18-hole golf course. To put this into perspective, that much water is equivalent to the daily consumption of a town of 12,000 people.

That amount of water cannot be used in a country which suffers significant water shortages and lies in a region where drought and desertification have also accelerated due to climate change. 
 

An Ouagadougou resident Nathanael Congo while talking to AFP said that the "browns" on which Ouagadougou Golf Club is made on is "all part of the sport, it's part of what makes the Ouagadougou course exceptional". Congo who is also said to be a newcomer to golf, spoke about how he was initially reluctant to take up golf as "most Burkinabe think that it's a sport that's reserved for a certain category of person." This statement was made in reference to the membership fee of the golf club, reported AFP.

The origins of Ouagadougou Golf Club date back to more than half a century a time when the area was just a small village of people "growing crops and raising cattle," said director of sports, Abdou Tapsoba to AFP and it was his father who introduced golf to Ouagadougou.

According to Tapsoba, his father took up golf in the French army following World War II. The villagers whose lands were taken to build the club found jobs there, like tending the courses, becoming caddies and some even turned into exceptional golfers, said Tapsoba to AFP.