Michlifen Golf & Country Club

Moroccan golf reaches new heights in the Middle Atlas mountains at Ifrane We were delighted to accept a recent invitation to play the new IMG-managed course at Michlifen Golf & Country Club within Ifrane National Park, located just an hour’s drive south of Fez international airport in the Middle Atlas mountain region. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, the 18-hole layout is the Golden Bear’s first Signature golf course in North Africa and it’s been built to a championship standard that makes it more than capable of hosting both national and international tournaments. We’d actually been to the site during course construction in April of last year, when we were attending the Trophée Hassan II European Tour event at Royal Dar Es Salam Golf Club in Rabat, so it was great to return eighteen months later to see the finished article. The Michlifen course is situated to the southwest of Ifrane, some ten kilometres from the resort’s 5-star chalet hotel, where it was built for ONCF, the national railway company, with architect Dirk Bouts and shaper Russell Curtis heading the Nicklaus design team on the ground. Because the landscape is so rocky in these parts, fairways were capped with imported soil and playing corridors for the last six holes had to be carved through the forest that lies to the south side of the property. By no stretch of the imagination could this course be described as an easy build. Both the front and back nines end in spectacular style with fairways laid out along an escarpment overlooking the market town of Azrou in the distance and the clubhouse terrace perched above this ridge behind the 9th and 18th greens has to be one of the best sundown spots in world golf. Click the link to read more about Michlifen Golf & Country Club It’s a long way to travel to Morocco to visit just one place so we built a little road trip into our excursion, enabling us to have a look at a few other golfing facilities in the north of the country, starting with another IMG operation at the Atalayoun Golf Resort in Nador, on the Mediterranean coast. The recently opened Marchica Golf Academy offers an unrivalled array of practice and learning facilities, including a state-of-the-art Performance Centre, full-scale driving range with proper target green complexes, short game centre and a lovely little par-3 course which runs alongside the lagoon. Led by a small team of Professionals, the Academy not only offers itself as the ultimate golf-learning destination, it will focus on integrating and developing golf within the community as well as identifying and nurturing golfing talent in the country. An hour’s drive east, very close to the Algerian border, lies the popular coastal resort of Saïdia and the decade-old Lacs course at Golf de Saïdia is a Francisco Segales design, routed around a number of sparkling lakes, with both nines finishing in front of the clubhouse. It’s a pleasant resort course to be enjoyed without raising the pulse too much. Nearby, the finishing touches were still being made to Golf de Saïdia’s brand new Teelal course and a very modern two-storey clubhouse when we visited. This 18-hole links-style layout is only the second design from Nicolas Joakimides and he’s set out the course on a sandy 180-acre site next to the beach, shaping much of the course himself. It looks a really fun track – crammed with fairway humps and hollows, sandy waste areas and punchbowl greens – but because it was still growing in we didn’t get a chance to play what appears to be a great new addition to the golf scene in Morocco. Hopefully, we’ll get the opportunity to return next year to properly appraise it. We then headed six hundred kilometres west, from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean and the harbour town of Larache, where Lixus Beach Resort lies to the north of the port. We’d been alerted to this place six months ago by a golf news item which mentioned its 18-hole championship course was open for play – it was closed when we tried to have a look at it in April last year. Unfortunately, it looks like the course still isn’t actually operating at the moment, which is a real pity as it looks like a very well-constructed layout – having been built to championship standards by Enrique Saenger in 2010 – but the current maintenance regime on the property leaves a lot to be desired. Further south, between Rabat and Mohammedia, we looked in at a Robert von Haage 9-hole design at Bouznika Bay, where the late architect’s partner Rick Baril had overseen the project in the late 1990s. He told us: “We hired a Canadian shaper we had worked with previously and found a great French project manager. A team was built around these two key people, and the project was completed.” “I think we were able to design some interesting holes at Bouznika Bay. Today, I think we could have been even more aggressive with the sandy waste areas – which mainly border one side of many golf holes. But I would be more aggressive with the sandy waste areas today – and allow them to penetrate the fairways in some strategic points.” Our final visit was to another 9-hole course, this time the old layout at Royal Anfa in Casablanca, which is set within an oval horse racing circuit in the north west quarter of the city, less than two kilometres from the corniche that runs along the Atlantic shoreline. Secrétaire Général Mohamed Mekour had extended an invitation to join him for lunch at the clubhouse and it was fascinating to hear him talk about the management of a club that has more than four thousand members, which represents around two thirds of all registered golfers in Morocco. As it was a Friday, when weekly race meetings take place, the course was closed but we were given special permission to inspect the layout by buggy with the course manager. Extending to 2,710 metres from the back markers, this 9-hole circuit plays to a par of 35, ending with a par three hole which requires a carry across a small lake to the home green. Royal Anfa is a nicely laid out track that has served the membership since the 1930s (or 1940s, depending on who you listen to) and the club definitely functions at the heart of Moroccan golf, as witnessed by the sight of several leading officials from the Moroccan Golf Federation enjoying lunch at the next table, following an earlier meeting they’d attended in the clubhouse. All too soon, it was time to depart the Western Kingdom and return once again to the UK. We’ve now been to just about every golf facility in the country, apart from one that opened in the south of the country last year, along with Ron Fream’s 9-hole layout at Settat University which we hadn’t enough time to visit this time around. There are also a few very private tracks laid out within the Royal palaces in Rabat, Fes, Marrakech and Skhirat that we’d like to visit in the future if it was possible to obtain the necessary permission. We’ve played within the palace walls at both Agadir and Meknes so it would be a rather unique golfing achievement to complete the Royal rota but that’s perhaps another story for another day… Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Seach for “Morocco” on this website and you’ll be presented with a whole series of articles, dating back to April 2012 when we published Morocco, the Kingdom of Golf, is waiting to welcome you… Since then, we’ve made several excursions to different regions around the country, exploring the various golf facilities that operate close to all the major cities, from Saïdia on the Mediterranean Sea in the northeast to Agadir on the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Links to these trip reports are listed at the bottom of this article for further reading. Marrakech boasts a dozen courses around the perimeter of the Red City, and we’ve also visited most of the coastal layouts between Essaouira and Rabat then beyond to Tangier – in fact, there’s less than a handful golf locations that we’ve yet to see around the nation. We created a Top 10 chart for Morocco back in 2012 which was doubled in size three years later. These rankings were updated in 2020 then further extended to a Top 25 last year so, all things considered, we think we’ve a reasonable grasp of all things golf-related within the country. Last month, we were invited to attend what was marketed as the “Return of the Champions” – comprising the 48th edition of the Hassan II Golf Trophy and 27th edition of the Lalla Meryem Cup at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat. This golfing extravaganza featured 66 players from the PGA Tour Champions circuit on the Red course and 108 professionals from the Ladies European Tour on the Blue course (the 18th hole on this layout is pictured at the top of the article). What appears next is a blog-style account of how the week unfolded… MONDAY After a late breakfast at the Sofitel hotel in Rabat on the Monday morning, we took the shuttle bus for the 20-minute journey to the Media Centre for accreditation then a wander around the golf club campus to familiarize with the location of the Players’ Lounge, Caddy Area, Exhibitor Units – and the all-important Food Court for lunch! As most of the press people had still to arrive, it give us a chance to sit down with a couple of folk who would keep us right during the week, namely Michel Besanceney (General Co-ordinator of both competitions) and Mounia El Khettar (Communication Director from the Royal Moroccan Golf Federation). Another person who rarely gets in the spotlight at big events is the head greenkeeper so we made a point of talking to Australian Simon Rees, previously at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, who told us when we were here in May last year of his plans to convert the fairways to a type of grass that’s more suited to the Rabat climate. He has experience of setting up for big international events before so he appeared very relaxed about the following few days. A walk round a few holes close to the clubhouse confirmed everything was in position for the week ahead. Both Robert Trent Jones Sr-designed courses have been upgraded in recent years, with James Duncan working on the Red and Cabell Robinson on the Blue, and the results of these big budget improvements are very impressive. TUESDAY The main focus on Day 2 was the Press Conference for both tournaments, attended by the Stephen Ames (winner of last year’s men’s event), Miller Brady (President of the PGA Tour Champions), Alexandra Armas (CEO of the Ladies European Tour), local player Ines Laklalech (who won the Lacost Ladies Open de France in 2022) and a couple of officials from the Royal Moroccan Golf Federation. Miller Brady mentioned that this was the third of twenty-eight events to be played in 2024 across 19 states in the US and three other countries (Morocco, Scotland and Canada), with the first two competitions already staged in Hawaii and Florida. He felt sure the Hassan II Golf Trophy Tournament would be a resounding success, despite a weather forecast of rain along the way. Alexandra Armas reminded everyone the Lalla Meryem Cup was being played for the 12th time as part of the LET schedule and that last year’s winner Maja Stark from Sweden had gone on to represent Europe in the Solheim Cup, winning 2.5 points from the four matches she played in. She looked forward to an abundance of young players teeing it up with the aim of following in Maja’s footsteps. A second press conference was then convened by the LET to announce hosting details for the Lalla Aïcha Qualifying School in December, which will be staged for the next three years in Marrakech. Pre-qualification will take place over three rounds on four courses at Palm Golf Ourika, Palmeraie Rotana, Noria and Samanah before final qualification over five rounds at Royal Marrakech and Al Maaden. In the evening, a group of journalists headed out of the hotel by taxi to the Rabat medina in search of the Dar Zaki restaurant. It took a little time to locate it among the narrow alleyways but, what a find – no wonder it’s rated #1 out of 356 in Rabat by tripadvisor.com! The food was simple but wonderful, with a selection of sharing starters and mains the way to go. And with a bill of less than eighty euros for five people it was an absolute bargain for a meal to remember. WEDNESDAY We were invited to participate in the Friendship Cup pro-am with players from the PGA Tour Champions the day before the serious business got under way. Team Stableford totals consisted of both the professional’s score and the 4-person amateur team score (playing in a scramble format). Royal Golf Dar Es Salam has just completed a new practice facility (with soon to open library, museum and offices) where professionals and pro-am participants were able to warm up prior to teeing it up on the 1st hole. At the last minute, one of our European Golf and Travel Media Association members had to drop out through injury but Omar Lamrini from the golf club stepped in to make up the numbers. Professional Mario Tiziani from Michigan, the brother-in-law of Steve Stricker, led the line and he played a very solid round, contributing to a total score of 77 points which saw the team finish 15th out of 30, so no disgrace there. The slow pace of play did however give us a chance on several tees to chat to John Daly, the professional in the group behind us who, with his country music blaring away on his cart, has to be one of the most laid-back golfers you’ll ever come across – all that was missing was a case of beers in the back of the buggy! Unfortunately, our very slow round of six and a half hours gave us no opportunity to look in on the Pro-Am Hassan II Kids Cup by First Tee on the 9-hole Green course, where nine teams of three (two children and one pro) participated in a fun competition. The Royal Moroccan Golf Federation signed a partnership with First Tee USA in 2019 to transmit skills and life values to young people through golf and so far more than two hundred youngsters have benefitted from this program across five Moroccan cities. Later in the evening at the invitation-only Cocktail Party in the Fairmont La Marina Rabat Salé Hotel a couple of EGTMA members from Ireland, Ann Mooney and Geraldine Bradley, were spied in the company of Colin Montgomerie and his wife Sarah. When asked if they were now frequenting Elland Road more often during the current football season, Monty confessed he’d actually been to Anfield quite a bit (as Sarah is a Liverpool fan) but they’ll hopefully see a lot more of Leeds United later in the year – assuming they get promoted to the Premier League in May! We also got the chance to have a quick chat with architect James Duncan about the course improvements made to the Red course at Dar Es Salam, the upgrade of the El Jadida course and his latest project at Brambles in California. He also has an interest in the Coul Links development in Scotland so perhaps he’ll be back in Caledonia before too long? THURSDAY The first two days of competition at RGDES were earmarked for a couple of side trips, away from Rabat, so the Thursday was spent in Bouskoura on the southern outskirts of Casablanca, where three golf courses are all situated close to one another within large residential developments. Casa Green (pictured above) was first up in the morning and it’s one of nine Madaëf Golfs facilities in Morocco, with the course designed by French-based Jeremy Pern. Following a buggy tour of the property, a lengthy chat with Director of Golf Reda Bennis was one of the more interesting hours spent during the entire week – there’s nothing like local knowledge to keep you abreast of developments. In the afternoon, there were similar visits paid to the nearby Tony Jacklin Casablanca and Palmeraie Country Club golf courses. Whether any of these three Bouskoura layouts make it into our next Moroccan listings remains to be seen but they all stand a chance. The brochure produced for The Return of the Champions devoted a page to seven courses to check out close to Rabat, namely the three that we visited at Bouskoura and four others: the 18-hole layouts at Bahia Beach [#24 in our Moroccan chart] and Royal Anfa Mohammedia [listed at #20], along with unranked 9-hole tracks at Bouznika Bay and Royal Golf Anfa. We didn’t have time to see these other four courses but they all remain in the frame for our next national chart update whenever it happens.  FRIDAY The IMG-operated facility at Michlifen is a 6-hour round trip from Rabat into the Middle Atlas mountains but we’ve been there a couple of times in the past and know it’s well worth the drive to get there and back. Jo Maes, President of EGTMA, was keen to have a look and so we set off from Rabat nice and early at 07:00. The image above shows the overcast weather on arrival but within minutes the very fine rain at altitude in the clouds was like a foggy mist, meaning you could see less than 50 metres in any direction! Playing a round of golf was out of the question, disappointingly. Head greenkeeper Alex Avila, who we’d previously met when he worked at Oued Fes Golf, showed us around the clubhouse and the academy, both of which are set up to the highest standards, before the Michlifen hotel general manager Abdelaziz Aoumeziti joined us for lunch. In the afternoon, we were given a tour of the 5-star hotel (located a 10-minute drive away in the centre of Ifrane) including the spa and enormous multi-sports hall (where Jo Maes was determined to display some of his old basketball skills). The hotel is designed and decorated like a luxury chalet where visitors come in the winter when the snow often falls (“Michlifen” means snow flake) or in summer to escape the heat in the cool mountain climate. Too bad rain stopped play for us on one of the days we were most looking forward to! SATURDAY And so, the culmination of the week-long trip brought us back to Rabat for the third and final day of play in both the men’s and ladies’ competitions. And to start the day, we wished every success on the 1st tee to one of our core team members, Panellist & Travel Consultant Javier Pintos, who was caddying for a fellow Argentinian, Ángel Cabrera, the two-time Major winner. “El Pato” as he is nicknamed, had a reasonable tournament, finishing joint 27th in a field of sixty-six. The man from Córdoba was only cleared to play again in PGA Tour-sanctioned events last December after spending some time in prison so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on now in this comeback season. Of course, competitive golf is all about winners and it was another Argentinian, Ricardo González, who held off a strong challenge from Thomas Bjørn to finish one shot ahead of the Dane and claim the Hassan II Golf Trophy with a three-round total of ten under par. This prompted a mini-invasion of Argentinian supporters who were inside the ropes on the 18th green on the Red course when the final putt was sunk, with our man Javier right in the thick of things! The prize for winning the men’s tournament is a Moroccan dagger, known as “The Khandjar,” which the victor gets to keep. Across the road on the Blue course, Bronte Law from Stockport in England, completed her final round with a par four on the 18th to post a magnificent nine under par score of 64, edging out her nearest competitor Pauline Roussin-Bouchard by three shots as she claimed victory in the Lalla Meryem Cup. The prize for winning the ladies’ tournament is a “Minaudiere” clutch bag encrusted with precious stones which is a rather unique way to mark a special win on the LET circuit. At the press conference afterwards, Bronte gave fulsome praise to Ian Woosnam who has been helping her behind the scenes but her victory was tinged with a little regret that her parents had been unable to make the journey to Morocco to support her – maybe next year now when she returns as defending champion? If you have any comment to make on the above article then please use the “WRITE A RESPONSE” link at the bottom of this page. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses FURTHER READING On this website, click any of the nine links below: DECEMBER 2015 Top 20 Golf Courses of Morocco 2016 JUNE 2016 We’ve revisited Morocco to uncover further golfing delights APRIL 2017 We return to Morocco to find out what’s new in the Western Kingdom OCTOBER 2018 Moroccan golf reaches new heights in the Middle Atlas mountains at Ifrane JUNE 2020 Top 100 Golf Courses revises its North African rankings AUGUST 2022 Golf Resorts in the Red City of Marrakech JANUARY 2023 Agreeable resort golf in Agadir MAY 2023 Morocco is calling – what are you waiting for? JUNE 2023 Top 25 Golf Courses of Morocco 2023 Golf in Morocco: Land of Wonders is a big, glossy production that was published in 1996 to mark the Silver Jubilee of the Hassan II Trophy. Written by Barry Ward and Tom McArthur, with extensive photography from Brian Morgan, this book was something of a labour of love to produce for Mohamed Khnichich from Marrakesh Express Travel [ISBN 0 9529617 0 9].

Our first Top 10 chart for Morocco was published in 2010, then we doubled the number of courses featured in 2016. Those rankings have only been updated once since then in 2020 so it’s high time that situation was remedied, especially as we’ve made several trips to the country in the last few years and visited quite a few of the contenders. The 18-hole layout at Golf du Palais Royal d’Agadir became our national #1 ten years ago, following our participation in the pro-am for the Hassan II Golf Trophy in 2012, when the professional tournament was staged in Agadir. Since the event moved back to Rabat in 2016, the gates to the course have remained firmly shut – indeed, a tight security cordon around the palace keeps golfers well away, as we found out a few months ago after inadvertently taking a wrong turn on the way to another nearby golf facility. With that in mind, we’ve decided to pay more attention to the other chart candidates, allowing the esteemed Robert Trent Jones Senior design in Agadir to fall naturally in the new rankings due to a lack of support from a local panel of industry experts who we’ve consulted. Essentially, they’ve told us you can’t vote for what you can’t gain access to! Has there been changes made to the layout in the last eight years? Does the course still enjoy the same high standard of maintenance? Questions like these remain unanswered so, for now, we’ll have to largely overlook the former Hassan II Golf Trophy venue and concentrate on the many other top-class courses in the Kingdom which are accessible to ordinary golfers. Royal Golf Dar Es Salam And so, the Red course at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam (another RTJ design from the late 1960s) returns to the top spot in our Moroccan listings. It’s the premier 18-hole layout at a fabulous 45-hole complex outside Rabat and the layout has profited from a recent bunker renovation by architect James Duncan that really needs to be seen to be believed. Al Houara Crashing straight into our listings at #2 is the Hilton Tangier Al Houara Resort & Spa course which was officially opened late last year by Graham Marsh and Vijay Singh. Playing surfaces are carpeted throughout in paspalum grass, affording a very links-like playing experience close to the Atlantic coast, with extensive practice areas and a 9-hole floodlit short course complementing the main layout. Tazegzout The Vert and Rouge nines at Tazegzout Golf (up one place to #6) lie atop the escarpment overlooking Taghazout Bay, half an hour’s drive north of Agadir, and they’ve now been joined by an entertaining 9-hole short course (the Bleu) on the lower level, close to the beach. Designed by Kyle Phillips and unveiled ten years ago, the main course builds to an exciting climax over the last three holes. Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech The 18-hole layout at Fairmont Royal Palm Marrakech edges one place up the new standings to #9. Opened for play ten years ago, it’s a Cabell Robinson production that underwent an extensive bunker renovation last year, involving the rebuilding of all the sand hazards, which resulted in some of the traps being reduced in size while others were totally filled in to improve the overall playability. Royal El Jadida Also moving up one spot in our new table to #10, the 18-hole layout at Royal El Jadida is (like Tazegzout) operated by Madaëf Golfs, the first golf network in Morocco with a total of nine courses in its portfolio. James Duncan has also been busy here of late, carrying out a large-scale upgrade which entailed the redesign of tee boxes, renovation of bunkers and relocation of several greens. Golf du Soleil The Championship course at the 36-hole Golf du Soleil complex is our biggest chart climber, rising three places to #13. Completely renovated in 2019 with a change of playing surfaces, reconstruction of greens, refurbishment of lakes and installation of a new irrigation system, the layout is complemented by the shorter Tikada course, making this place the ideal venue for a full day of golf in Agadir. Al Maaden Golf Resort Advancing two rungs on the ladder to #18, the course at the Al Maaden Golf Resort is possibly the most unique golfing layout you will ever play. Holes were laid out by Kyle Phillips around a geometrical “Moroccan water garden” from Spanish landscape designer Fernando Caruncho in the middle of the property – you’ll absolutely love it or hate it but you’ll never forget it! Akenza We understand the new 18-hole Akenza course (yet another design from Kyle Phillips) between Noria and PalmGolf Ourika in Marrakech, is due to open in September. That means we’ll definitely be back to the Red City this winter to check out the likelihood of this layout featuring in the next edition of our Moroccan listings. To view the entire detailed list of our latest Top 25 Golf Courses of Morocco click the link. View list here. If you have any comment to make on the above article then please use the “WRITE A RESPONSE” link at the bottom of this page. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses