Return of the Champions to Morocco in 2024

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

We’ve published quite a few articles on golf in the Kingdom of Morocco, most recently when we revisited Marrakech last year, then a few months ago when we teed it up on a winter weekend break to Agadir. Often overlooked by golfers looking for an alternative to the usual destinations in Portugal or Spain, Morocco has more than forty courses spread out around the country, most of them built to modern specifications and maintained to a high standard. A host of travel agencies can sort out accommodation and green fee packages but you can also make your arrangements, flying in to deal direct with clubs you’d like to visit – the only course we know of which is off limits to the public is the Palais Royal d’Agadir. All the other clubs are happy to accept a green fee and provide, at very reasonable rates, a local caddy who’ll carry your bag and offer advice as required. Some caddies have been employed for more than fifty years (at Royal Dar Es Salam, for instance) so they certainly know their way around. Last month, we were invited to join a select group from the European Golf and Travel Media Association to participate in a week-long golf trip along the Atlantic coastline of the country, starting in El Jadida and finishing in Tangier. Hopefully, the following brief account of how the tour unfolded will give you a flavour of what golf is like in the northwest corner of the African continent. Royal Golf El Jadida After flying into Casablanca airport, we drove an hour to the Royal El Jadida course outside the fortified port city of El Jadida. Built by the Portuguese in the 16th century as a staging post for mariners heading to and from South America, El Jadida is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the city fortifications of bastions and ramparts regarded as fine examples of military design. The golf course lies to the north of the city, where architect Cabell Robinson carved out eighteen holes from a landscape of coastal woodland thirty years ago. The golf facility is now manged by Madaëf Golfs – who operate another eight courses in five other Moroccan destinations – and a substantial investment was made a short time back which allowed James Duncan to carry out a very well-received bunker renovation, along with other infrastructure improvements made in and around the clubhouse. Mazagan The EGTMA group stayed a couple of nights at the magnificent Mazagan Beach Resort near El Jadida, which owner Sol Kerzner built in the early years of the new millennium, modelling the complex on his Sun City complex in his native South Africa. The 492 rooms and suites (plus 14 restaurants and bars) at Mazagan are spread across a huge 600-acre coastal property with the spa including a 100 square metre breath taking space of mosaic and marble in the hammam, along with a state-of-the-art gym and fitness centre. The Mazagan golf course is a Gary Player design, the longest in the country when it debuted in 2009 and fairways weave in and out of the low-lying sand dunes to the north of the resort. Holes are set out as two returning nines, each of which concludes metres from the waves crashing onto the beach, near to the clubhouse. Bahia Golf Beach Day three of the press trip got under way in rather unconventional style, attending an exhibition of horsemanship at the Tbourida (also known as Fantasia) in Bouznika. The performance consists of troupes of horse riders in traditional attire who head in a line along a 200-metre track at the same speed then, at the end of a short charge, fire their muskets into the sky. The difficulty is synchronizing the horse movement during acceleration of the charge, and especially in firing the guns simultaneously so that one single shot is heard at the end. Regional heats take place – 31 junior and senior troupes participated in this one – before the finals take place at the Mohammed VI exhibition centre outside El Jadida. After the excitement of the Tbourida in the morning, the afternoon’s play at Bahia Golf Beach was rather tame in comparison, though the course is a solid Cabell Robinson design which brings water hazards into play on several occasions. The slope for the middle set of three tees (5,060 to 6,075 metres) varies between 120 and 129 so it’s not too taxing a track but if you choose to play from the black rear tees (6,749 metres) then the challenge increases quite a bit as a slope rating of 140 will confirm. After finishing the round, it was back to relax at the on-site Vichy Celéstins Spa Hôtel, boasting 130 bedrooms and two restaurants with the country’s first Wellness Clinic also offering guests the use of a large health spa comprising an indoor pool, gymnasium, hydrothermal area, yoga studio and two large outdoor pools. Royal Golf Dar Es Salam Situated in the Zaers forest to the south of Rabat, the 45-hole golf facility at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam is a late-1960s Robert Trent Jones Senior production that concurrently hosts the Hassan II Golf Trophy and the Lalla Meryem Cup on the Red and Blue courses. The Red course was recently renovated by architect James Duncan – with substantial green contouring a major feature of the upgrade – and these wildly undulating new putting surfaces definitely added to the playing experience for the visiting journalists. There aren’t many (if any) golf clubs around the world with the resources to host international men’s and women’s professional golf tournaments in the same week on the same campus but Royal Dar Es Salam has being doing this on and off since 1993, which is a quite remarkable achievement. An impressive new national Academy setup is due to open later this year at the club (the result of a joint venture with the PGA of America) and this will include all the usual golf training and practice components, as well as a museum, library, fitness centre, spa and restaurant. Before heading back to our accommodation at the newly opened Conrad Rabat Arzana hotel outside the capital, there was time for a quick look round the medina in the old walled city of Salé, which is separated from Rabat by the Oued Bou Regreg where it empties into the Atlantic. Of course, for the women in the group especially, a little local shopping after a long day at the golf club was the perfect way to round things off on the Rabat leg of the tour... Royal Country Club de Tanger The penultimate morning of the trip was spent on the road, making the 3-hour journey north from Rabat to the port city of Tangier and the Royal Country Club de Tanger, which celebrated its centenary in 2014. It’s a wonderful old property in the Boubana district of the city, where the golf course has been extensively modified over the years, primarily by Hugh Alison in the 1930s, Cotton & Pennink in the 1960s then Peter Harradine twenty years ago. In more recent times, clubhouse facilities at Royal Tangier have been upgraded, cart paths refurbished and general maintenance improvements made to allow the club to keep pace with a fast-moving golf world – anybody who visited five or six years ago would now be amazed by the transformation that has taken place since then. After golf it was only a short 15-minute drive downtown to the Hilton Tanger City Center Hotel beside the Tanger Ville railway station, where the new high-speed TGV train service connects to Casablanca. It was a little too late in the day for the media group to try any of the rooftop pool, sauna and steam facilities but the long-range views at dinner from La Kasbah restaurant on the 15th floor across the Strait of Gibraltar (to Tarifa, 31 kilometres away on the Spanish mainland) were simply stunning. Hilton Tangier Al Houara Resort & Spa The final leg of the 6-day Moroccan golfing excursion entailed a mere 30-minute drive south to the Hilton Tangier Al Houara Resort & Spa, where the 18-hole golf course was officially opened nine months ago by the joint architects Graham Marsh and Vijay Singh. Funded by the Qatari Diar investment company, phase 1 of the Al Houara project includes the hotel and golf complex (extending to the 18-hole layout, 9-hole floodlit par three course and practice facilities), though the partly-built clubhouse is yet to be completed. That means holes are artificially sequenced at the moment so that a round starts and finishes on the coastline, close to the hotel, and that isn’t an ideal arrangement but it’ll have to do for the time being. Al Houara is a big budget development and it’s obvious there was no expense spared in the design and build of both the course and the surrounding infrastructure. It might lack a little character and soul right now – which Royal Tangier has in abundance – but the course itself is one of the very best in Morocco and should go on to host many prestigious championships in years to come. When the round was over (and yet another magnificent spread of Moroccan food had been devoured next to the hotel pool) it was time to hit the road south to the Barceló Anfa Casablanca for a final overnight stop before flying out from Mohammed V International Airport the following day. What a week it had been; mixing great golf with local culture and dining on Moroccan cuisine of the highest quality throughout the trip. Above all, the hospitality was unsurpassed which, for those who have been to the country before, is pretty much why they return again and again to a land that just keeps giving… Sincere thanks for overseeing such an unforgettable expedition to tour guide Khalid from the Paris bureau of the Office National Marocain Du Tourisme (otherwise known as visitmorocco.com) and to EGTMA senior member Roland Machenuad who was heavily involved in the background organisation beforehand with President Jo Maes. And just how good is Morocco as a golfing destination? Well, you’ll never know if you don’t go… 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

The tourist town of Agadir lies on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, with a population of around half a million people. The local economy is centred on the port, where hundreds of small fishing boats land millions of sardines every year, but tourism also plays a big part in the town’s ongoing prosperity. It’s now the nation’s biggest seaside resort and Agadir As Massia airport is used by an increasing number of European low cost carriers to fly in foreign visitors throughout the year. You can easily spend the best part of a week golfing here as there are 126 holes spread over five different golf facilities. Set aside a day for each of the four modern golf complexes in the town and at nearby Taghazout – but don’t forget the 9-hole Royal Golf Club Agadir where you’ll step back in time to savour its 1937 origins. If only the ultra-private Golf du Palais Royal d’Agadir layout (host venue for the Hassan II Golf Trophy 2011-2015) was so accessible to visitors… Golf du Soleil - Championship Golf du Soleil is the only 36-hole set-up in Agadir and it started out with three 9-hole circuits in the late 1990s which were designed by Fernando Mueller and Gerard Courbin. An additional 9-hole loop was added to the Blue nine in 2006 for form the 18-hole Tikida course, with the original Yellow and Red nines rebranded as the Championship layout. This course staged the LET’s Lalla Meryem Cup in 2011 so it obviously has the capability of testing the professionals as well as providing an entertaining challenge for resort golfers. Golf du Soleil - Tikida The shorter Tikida course also plays to a par of 72, with four par fives on the front nine. A couple of these holes are routed round the Tikida Palace hotel in the southern part of the property, close to where the Oued Sous empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly, a round here finishes (like the Championship course) with a terrific short par three across the little lake that fronts the clubhouse – it’s a fabulous setting for a post round drink on the terrace watching golfers complete their 18-hole journey round this golfing oasis. The 5-star Tikida Golf Palace hotel was built when the course was extended 17 years ago and it offers 54 air-conditioned luxury guest rooms and suites, each with a minimum space of 60 square metres. Spa and fitness centre amenities include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a sauna, Turkish bath, steam bath, jacuzzi, massage and spa treatments. La Table du Golf restaurant is open seven days a week serving high-quality cuisine for lunch and dinner. Other Riu Group hotels in Agadir are also associated with Golf du Soleil; namely the Riu Tikida Beach, the Riu Tikida Dunas and the Riu Tikida Palace, along with the Riu Palace Tikida Taghazout on the other side of town. Golf de l’Océan Golf de L’Ocean is situated a short 5-minute drive from Golf du Soleil, with three 9-hole loops in play: “Desert,” “Garden” and “Dunes”. Designed by the American Belt Collins company and opened in 2010, the course co-hosted both the Trophée Hassan II and Coupe Lalla Meryem professional events for men and women just a year after it debuted. The Dunes and Garden nines are marketed as the premier 18-hole combination but either of these 9-hole layouts could be replaced by the Desert nine which is at least as good as both of them. A couple of local accommodation providers are major partners with Golf de L’Ocean and they’re positioned close to each other on the other side of the Royal Palace, just a 15-minute drive away. The 470-room Founty Beach Hotel is spread over three buildings, with a large outdoor pool, a fitness centre and a spa. For those who might prefer a quieter stay, the 28-room Riad Villa Blanche is a great option. The spa provides beauty treatments with massages given by “magic” hands and the restaurant – organized in three atmospherically different rooms – serves French and Moroccan specialities. Golf Les Dunes Golf Les Dunes lies between Golf du Soleil and Golf de l’Ocean, with three 9-hole loops designed by Cabell Robinson in the early 1990s.Each nine has its own character: the fairways of the Oued are very tight and undulating, the Tamaris brings water into play at several holes whilst the Eucalyptus is set out on more open ground. All holes enjoy firm and fast playing conditions as they’re laid out across a landscape of pure sand which is many metres deep. At the moment, the clubhouse is closed for renovation. The golf club partners a number of local hotels, including the 251-room Riu Tikada Beach, the 400-room Riu Tikada Dunas and the 343-room Robinson Club, all of which reside along the strand to the north of the Royal Palace. A little closer to the course, there are cosier places to stay like Villa Riadana and Riad des Golfs (which each have 8 suites) and an Airbnb establishment called Villa Phénix with 6 guestrooms for up to 12 people. These more intimate venues are ideal for small groups who’d like some privacy when they’re not on the golf course during the day. Tazegzout Golf The 27-hole facility at Tazegzout Golf is situated half an hour’s drive north of Agadir in Taghazout Bay, where it’s operated by Madaef Golfs, who also manage Les Dunes. Designed by Kyle Phillips, the original eighteen holes (Vert & Rouge) are set out on high ground above Taghazout Bay, climaxing with a fantastic 3-hole stretch along the edge of the escarpment that overlooks the Atlantic below. Tazegzout’s located a little out of town but it’s well worth the journey to get here and experience a course fashioned by one of the world’s leading golf course architects. The 5-star Hyatt Place Taghazout Bay hotel sits next door to the golf course, with 152 guest rooms available for stay and play. Close by, there’s the 504-room Riu Palace Tikida Taghazout hotel and next door to it is the Radisson Blu resort with a variety of rooms, bungalows, and cabanas. Close by, the Hyatt Regency Taghezout just opened last year with 190 guestrooms, while further along the beach there’s the 170-room Hilton Taghazout Bay Beach Resort & Spa and the Fairmont Taghazout Bay which has a selection of 146 rooms, suites and villas with ocean views – you’re certainly not short of choice here!  Royal Golf Club Agadir No golf trip to Agadir would be complete without a visit to the old 9-hole course at Royal Agadir, set out on a triangular-shaped property at the end of the main N10 highway heading west from town towards the airport. The club was founded in 1937 then a mysterious “Scotsman named Mister Wilson” is said to have improved the layout in 1952 before they were further refined in more recent times by a Colonel Kamili. Recent bunker renovations add real challenge to the layout in the modern era – beware those who glibly claim to have played the best 9-hole course in the world elsewhere as they’ve probably never heard of this place never mind set a foot in it… 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