( CNN ) Mention the words `` sand '' and `` golf '' together , and the chances are you 'll leave many players shuddering at the memory of being trapped in bunkers after another wayward shot . But in other parts of the world , sand golf is a version of the game in its own right . The idea of playing a round without verdant fairways to stride down or lush greens to putt ( and , of course , miss ) on seems strange , even wrong . Sometimes needs must , though . Half a century ago , expat oil workers with an enthusiasm for golf had nowhere in Abu Dhabi to play . In the baking desert heat , with little or no irrigation possible , the equation was simple : they either had to adapt to the surroundings or there 'd be no golf at all . The result was an incarnation of the game in which the only grass to be seen is artificial , found on a mat carried around by players to serve both as a tee and a surface from which to strike when the ball is on the fairway . Fairways ? They consist entirely of sand and are indicated by marker posts . If the ball lands outside them , it 's in the sand golf equivalent of the rough -- stony terrain that the unwary player may soon find is home to a few snakes and a lizard or two . Greens ? Well , they 're known as `` browns , '' built from clay and topped with a mixture of sand and oil to provide a true putting surface , a formula arrived at through trial and error . It 's an odd environment , this golfing world with a palette of golden-brown colors . And with rapidly developing irrigation and growing techniques enabling grass courses to be built in desert climes , it 's an increasingly unusual one . Back in 1961 , determined British oil workers created a sand course on an atoll known as Das Island , around 100 miles off Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf . It was the country 's first-ever golf club . As the expat population grew , so did the demand for the game , and in 1971 sand golf moved into Abu Dhabi proper with the opening of a course near the Sea Palace . Its success brought a move to the Equestrian Club , attracting close to 500 members . In the 1990s , the sand game 's fortunes took a dive as the site was earmarked for a nine-hole grass course . But although many sand course players changed surface and took up the more conventional game , several battled on and the 18-hole Al Ghazal sand course was created near Abu Dhabi airport , with its front nine occupying part of an archaeological site , in 1997 . Sand golf also exists in parts Australia and Africa but Al Ghazal ( which translates as `` gazelle '' -- gazelles peer from behind a fence by the second brown , ) is the only one that can be described as `` world class , '' says Dennis Cox , an expert on the game , because the scale and scope of its layout rivals its grass counterparts . The course found a place in the international spotlight when a World Sand Golf Championship , boasting star names including Colin Montgomerie was played in 2004 and 2005 ( won by Greg Owen and Thongchai Jaidee , ) but the tournament fizzled out as showpiece events went to showpiece grass courses . Maybe that 's understandable when you consider some of the extra elements involved in the sand game -- the browns , for example , must be swept for a few minutes after use so that they are left smooth and footprint-less for following players , while unexpected hazards can include burrows dug by desert lizards . Cox warns that a tradition is under threat , with a form of golf that was once commonplace in danger of becoming just a memory . Other , smaller clubs have fallen by the wayside , while Al Ghazal 's location near an expanding airport presents an obvious threat to its future . But even if the sand game were to fade into obscurity in the emirate , it is still played in parts of Africa . In Libya , still racked by instability following the ousting of Muammar Gaddaffi , courses -- the bulk of which can be found in the capital , Tripoli -- are of sand , with no grass versions existing . Once smart and well-kept , they have now slumped into neglect , with few people to play on them or look after them . David Bachmann , who formerly worked at the Austrian embassy in the city , wrote on his In Tripolis blog about the experience of playing sand golf in and near the city . Recounting his experiences of Tripoli 's tattered nine-hole Ghargharesh course , he wrote that it was one for diehards only , `` golf fanatics that would come every weekend to play a round on this challenging course . '' And he imagined that the skeleton of the clubhouse , on which work had long since stopped , might one day boast `` marble , chandeliers and state-of-the-art locker rooms ... overlooking the deep blue Mediterranean with the sun setting over the sea . '' For now , and against the odds , fans of this form of the game will just have to make do with being kings of their very own sand castles .
Expat oil workers in Abu Dhabi built sand golf course in 1961 . Score: 6