Golf on the Most Dangerous Course in the World

(CBS)  Americans love golf. More than 27 million of us play nearly half a billion rounds every year. Thanks to Adrian Levsky, some are now playing on a course that features very unusual hazards.

When he's driving on the golf course, Adrian Levsky is focused on distance. But off the links CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports he's working on a drive that will land much further away.

The obsession started last Christmas when his co-worker Mike Martin was transferred overseas, and expressed frustration on the new job. Immediately, Levsky thought golf was the answer - and started begging friends to donate golf balls.

Longmeadow Country Club

Golf's a sport associated with manicured greens and fairways. The golf balls that Levsky was sending would end up in one of the biggest sandtraps in the world: an Army base in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan.

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Levsky's friend Colonel Mike Martin is now in a war-zone, where golf has become a new pastime. Troops have launched a tournament called the Helmand River Open.

In truth, it's Operation Down Time.

"It helps out significantly with the morale out here," Col. Martin said. "It gives us something to do in the little down time we have - it takes our mind off the more serious business at hand."

With almost every swing of the golf club, the ball is sacrificed. It's too risky to retreive them from the hazard of a minefield.

So Levsky constantly works the phones to supply reinforcements. Levsky called Calloway, the golf equipment company which, coincidentally was already in the game - having donated golf gear over the past five years. But now they know exactly who was using it.

So far more than 100,000 balls have been sent and lost - but at this course no one's counting strokes.

[boblyons1]

All I want to know is an APO address where I can send balls. I live on a golf course, and I have many experienced balls I would like to share with the troups.

[elmgreen11]

The mossy balls commenter is on the right track. Algae growing on the surface of golf balls indicate that the single celled plant organism has in fact attached to and rooted itself into the plastic material. The algae is what's doing the breaking down of the synthetic polymers and absorbing it into its tissue for nutrients. Pigments in the surface plastic contain minerals that plants can use to grow and to reproduce. As other microbes and animals consume both the living and and decaying algae they pass toxins absorbed from the plastic all along the food chain. Plastics also contain various solvents and organic chemicals that alter the course of DNA cell replication as do biological hormones. These chemicals are carcinogens [causing cancer], mutagens [causing mutations] and teratogens [causing birth defects]. To inflict such wanton ecological contamination is totally senseless and ignorant behavior. I intend to correspond with the office of Hamid Kharsai the leader of Aghanistan and ask that he condemn this violation and issue an order to the US Marines to remove all of the golf balls illegally dumped into the Helmand River forthwith and discontinue this profanely obnoxious activity.

[elmgreen11]

Thoughtlessly trashing someone else's country is typical American behavior. The Helmand River in Afghanistan is not a hazard on a private golf course but rather a vital water source and habitat for the people and wildlife there. Golf balls deteriorate and the plastics break down, leaching toxic chemicals into the water and soil, poisoning the environment and causing genetic damage to the organisms therein. Shame on the Marines!

[r_e_a_l_l_y]

That is a Marine base not an Army base at least get the basic facts correct.

[MalloryDavis]

Why can't people just be left alone. My GAWD people...LET FREEDOM BE. They want to play golf..ok?...

[Osprey111]

I_am_me-- doesn't get it and probably won't ever get it.

[bpaxton]

Like CBS news, you might benefit from doing some simple research. Here's the link to the CNN story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/littering.golf.balls/index.html. It?s not "carp;" it?s totally unnecessary environmental degradation. Moreover, it's representative of a cavalier attitude that destroys American credibility abroad. Smart commanders in Afghanistan will eventually stop this golf ball nonsense because it undermines our mission.

[lhorvat2]

I understand that hitting a golf ball is a tension reliever for some of our soldiers who are on the edge everyday. Leaving these golf balls across the landscape reinforces a negative image of "rich and selfish Americans." Our great nation can figure out a way to retrieve or at least corral these thousands of golf balls which will impact the environment and sit there for decades.
Callaway could donate a several thousand feet of driving range netting to prevent this environmental eyesore. That way the golf balls could be retrieved and reused -- go Green -- Army Green!

[ubbfrankie]

I certainly support providing good recreational activities for our guys there but I am a scuba diver and I have seen personally what happens to these golf balls. Take Carmel, California for instance and you will find hundreds (maybe lots more) of moss covered balls out there near the beach where the (rich) locals have fun hitting them. The golf balls our guys hit into that river do not decompose, I guarantee. The guys are all smart and innovative. They will find a good way to recreate, get some sun and Vitamin D and still protect the ecosystem.

[Osprey111]

Wait a minute... How insensitive this is to Afghanistan's people and their environment. Are we that callous so as to be proud that we are polluting their environment with hundreds of thousands of balls? That is not our country to pollute. How elitist can some people be? My God.

Oh and just how do they think the kids of the region will respond when they find out that there are millions of golf balls there? Wait, do I recall mention of land mines? Hmm, can the US Military say Attractive Nuisance?

Adrian Levsky, and now Calloway, its a REAL bad idea OK! Why do you think foreign countries get so angry at some of the stuff we pull? Afghanistan is NOT our country, and its especially sick that we see nothing wrong with polluting their river! How much does this need to be stressed? Just because there is a war there does not excuse our actions.

I'm sorry and while I support our troops, this just isn't right at all levels. It's just elitist insensitive thinking once again.

[I_am_me1953]

No one cares what you think.

Go GIs, stroke away there in Afgh., but please be safe.

[catwreck]

Polluting their river? This is in the middle of countryside where nothing grows that isn't even useful for agriculture.

The kids of the region - if there are any nearby - are far too busy trying to produce enough to eat to be even interested in something as alien to them as a golf ball. Can't eat it, and it's not worth anything to anyone else so you can't trade it for anything.

Quit pretending that everything is like the tiny part of the world you know... and that the Afghanis see other people (including Americans) in a way even remotely like you do.

I'm not a fan of golf either, but your rant is so far off the mark it is laughable.