A GOLFING AMIR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 109, 9 May 1914, Page 10

A GOLFING AMIR.

Afghanistan, which has kept itself as free as any place in the Orient from Western institutions, has finally succumbed to the charms of golf. The sponsor of the Royal and ancient game is the Amit himself, who is rapidly becoming an expert player under the tutelage of a Scottish mining engineer. This Scotchman went to Kabul looking for mining concessions. Ho took with him his bag of clubs on the remote chance of finding golf links in a. country which had cherished a prejudice against any_ game played with a ball since the time of Omar Khayyam, and soon discovered that the monarch was ' fonder of talking Bport than business. I When he spoke so enthusiastically c-f j the Scottish Royal game, the Amir lost | no time in putting a corps of eappeTs and miners to work constructing a course under the direction: of the visitor. Since that time the Amir has become a devoted exponent of the game, and he has attained a fair degree of proficiency. But no matter what his skill, he bids fair to remain champion of the country. The game has reduced the girth of the Amir and improved his health, but h» ie afraid of overdoing it, so at his win» ter capital he is having built a mina'a* ture links de luxe, limited in size and as_ Smooth as a tennis lawn. Here ho will play the game withr^t any of the bunkers or hazards usually provided by the, ordinary course.