Where the greens are brown and the birdies are thieves: golfing at Birdsville Golf Club

Birdsville Dunes golf club president Nell Brook. ‘It’s a special course.’ Photograph: Michael Adams/The Guardian

On the edge of the Simpson Desert, an old man drags the teeth of black steel rake around a hole in the earth and shuffles outward in concentric sweeps.

Then the man stops. He turns the head of the rake to its cylindrical side and retraces his steps, smoothing a perfect circle of marmalade-coloured sand.