The graves and the greens of the Lebanon Golf Club

[Dyler Turden]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/golf/10/22/golf.lebanon.club.hezbollah/index.html?hpt=C1

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- The southern, dirt-poor Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh holds many secrets. After all, this is Hezbollah's stronghold, the powerbase of the militant Shia Muslim organization that has dominated Lebanese politics in recent years.

Bombed out buildings, destroyed during the Lebanon War in 2006, still litter the roadside. The whereabouts of the movement's leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose ubiquitous portrait stares back from countless road-side billboards, is unknown.

But there is one secret that hides behind uniform gray walls, as if ashamed of its presence: Lebanon's only golf course.

The Golf Club of Lebanon is an expanse of rolling greens and pristine fairways; state-of-the-art gyms and turquoise swimming pools; beautifully arranged flower beds and starched white polo tops, all in the midst of tightly-packed slums. <snip>