Return of the Champions to Morocco in 2024
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].