Morocco
A feature from the IAGTO Directory 2016
Morocco
Morocco More sun, more golf, more time… Celebrating 100 years of golfing history, the Kingdom of Morocco offers golfing visitors a very different experience, blending courses old and new with beaches caressed by Atlantic and Mediterranean waves, majestic mountains, arid deserts, exotic culture, mouth-watering cuisine and ancient royal cities. Few countries can boast a golfing heritage as rich as that of Morocco. Fewer still come even close to offering the incredibly diverse array of experiences that visitors can enjoy, both on and off the fairways. Quite simply, Morocco is unique as a golf destination.
Royal Golf Marrakech
The first greens opened in 1914 in Morocco’s northernmost city, Tangier, at what is now the Royal Country Club of Tangier. By 1933 there were two more courses – Royal Golf Mohammedia, near Casablanca, and Royal Golf Marrakech, whose construction was ordered by the Pacha of Marrakech and whose fairways played host to luminaries including Sir Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower, later to become British Prime Minister and US President respectively.
In the 1970s, Morocco’s visionary king, Hassan II, set a renaissance of the country’s golf industry in motion with the opening of Royal Dar Es Salam, in the capital, Rabat. The momentum has been stepped up under King Mohammed VI, with new courses sprouting up throughout the country, many by famous designers.
80
Morocco
Today, golfing visitors can choose to tee off on more than 35 courses, located in clusters around key cities and holiday resorts as well as in new leisure resort developments. They can find every type of course to play, from parkland-like fairways lined by stately pine, palm and eucalyptus trees to Scottish links-style courses, layouts winding through arid desert scrubland, cork oak forests or olive groves, sculpted American-style designs, others following the natural lie of the land, and more besides. Some coastal courses offer panoramic Atlantic or Mediterranean views, while soaring peaks of the nearby Atlas Mountains, snow-capped in winter, form a memorable backdrop to courses in Marrakech and Agadir. Morocco is not only easy to get to, with frequent flights to its major cities from airports around Europe and flights typically taking just two or three hours from key European markets, it is also now easier than ever to get around. Fast, new expressways have dramatically cut travel times, allowing for twin-centre or multiple-destination itineraries without golfers enduring long road transfers. Africa’s closest part to Europe – Spain is visible from Tangier – Morocco serves up an intoxicatingly-rich cultural experience to visitors. Age-old traditions endure in Berber villages, with donkeys and horse-drawn carts still widely used. The bustling medinas of its ancient cities are full of history, hubbub and colour, while cacophonous souks beckon for those who want to try haggling for bargains with street-wise stallholders.
Karnoussa restaurant, PalmGolf Club, Marrakech
Morocco’s cuisine is rightly celebrated; you can try exotic dishes in many restaurants, accompanied by musicians playing traditional instruments in the courtyards or gardens of venerable riads. Historic riads are among the many accommodation options for golfers, others including luxury resort hotels with golf on-site. Morocco is safe, its people are famed for their hospitality and it suits every type of visitor. With over 300 days of sunshine per year, its golf destinations offer a welcome escape to the sun, particularly for golfers in northern climes – and temperate winds make its coastal resorts playable year-round.
Assoufid Golf Club, Marrakech 81
Morocco
Samanah Golf Club, Marrakech
From Moorish to moreish - Morocco’s alluring appeal to golfers More sun Morocco is the closest guaranteed sunshine destination to Europe. Less than a three-hour flight from most major European capitals, golfing visitors can enjoy teeing off on Morocco’s courses in balmy temperatures and under vivid blue skies when their home courses are under snow or being buffeted by winter gales. Golf hotspots Agadir and Marrakech, among other destinations, enjoy well over 300 sunny days a year and the cooling winds blowing off the Atlantic and Mediterranean make for pleasant, year-round weather for golf on the coast. Agadir’s average daily high temperature changes little year-round, ranging from 20C in January to 26C in July and August, while Essaouira’s climate is similar to that of San Francisco, with an average temperature change of just 4C between summer (22C) and winter (18C). If you think of golf in Morocco as like being in a desert cauldron, think again.
Pullman Mazagan Royal Golf & Spa
Even in inland destinations Marrakech, Fez and Meknes, you can comfortably play golf from early autumn until late spring.
More golf Although golf in Morocco began a century ago, the last decade has seen huge growth in the number of its courses. There are now over 30 venues offering 18 or more holes, in addition to several nine-hole courses. They are spread around the country in clusters, so that golfers can easily combine playing several courses during their holiday.
Robinson Club Agadir
The biggest concentration of courses is in Marrakech, which currently has a dozen golf clubs and others imminent. Agadir has four golf clubs with at least 18 holes, while others are located in Atlantic beach destinations Essaouira and El Jadida, in and around the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Meknes and Tangier, and along its Mediterranean coastline. 82
Morocco
More time With short flight times from major European markets, an early flight gives golfers most of their arrival day at their destination and plenty of time for a round. Morocco is also on the same time zone as the UK, Ireland and Portugal, and just an hour’s difference to Central Europe. In Marrakech and Agadir, most golf courses are within 20 minutes of the airport and some just a five-minute drive. Golfers can be teeing off an hour after landing, while a late flight home gives time for a round on their departure day before checking in. Toll expressways opened in recent years have dramatically cut travel times between major cities. Marrakech to Agadir now takes under three hours while Essaouira is just two hours from both Marrakech and Agadir. Rabat to Casablanca will take 50 minutes on an expressway nearing completion. Amelkis Golf Club, Marrakech For those who prefer rail travel, Morocco’s first high-speed TGV line will whisk passengers between Tangier and Casablanca in only two hours from 2017, compared to four hours by road and up to six hours by normal trains. What’s more, it takes just half an hour by fast ferry from Spain to a ferry port near Tangier. Thanks to easy access from Europe and little time on the road, it gives golfing visitors more opportunity to visit Morocco’s cultural sites and historic attractions, admire its Moorish architecture, go shopping or simply relax at their hotels when they are not on its fairways.
Agadir’s Golf du Soleil 83
Morocco
Mazagan Golf Club
Morocco - a very diverse golf experience Beach and mountains Morocco’s southern golf courses offer an entrancing contrast of experiences, and backdrops, for golfers. The High Atlas Mountains, just south of Marrakech and inland from Agadir, serve up a spectacle for golfers on most courses as their tall peaks loom large on the horizon. The views are especially striking in winter, when snow-covered slopes contrast crisp blue skies and the verdant fairways, tees and greens.
The High Atlas Mountains
Named Golf Destination of the Year for Africa, the Indian Ocean and Gulf States in the 2015 IAGTO Awards, Marrakech not only offers golfers plenty of choice, there is also fantastic variety. Perhaps no more is that demonstrated than in the contrast between the venerable Royal Golf Marrakech, lined by cypress, palm, eucalyptus, olive and fruit trees, and the desert-style layout of Assoufid, one of the city’s newest courses. Agadir’s collection of clubs also offers an eclectic mix, despite their close proximity.
Tazegzout Golf Club 84
Some coastal courses give superb Atlantic vistas. Among t h o s e, A g a d i r n e w c o m e r Tazegzout Golf Club delivers sea views from every hole, its closing holes perched on the edge of high cliffs. Mazagan Golf Club skirts the sweeping sands of Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, and the final three holes of nearby Royal Golf El Jadida line the ocean after the course emerges from a pine and eucalyptus forest.
Morocco
Imperial cities Morocco’s four imperial cities – Marrakech, Fez, Meknes and Rabat – are all historical capitals, Rabat remaining the country’s capital today. All of them have golf courses, although Marrakech has by far the most. Rabat’s Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, the country’s largest golf complex, offers 45 holes of golf and hosts the prestigious Hassan II Trophy event again in May 2016, having staged the annual tournament from its inception in 1971 until 2010, when it became part of the PGA European Tour calendar. Other courses include two 18-hole layouts in Fez – Royal Golf Fez and Oued Fez Golf – as well as the nine-hole Meknes Royal Golf Club, set inside the grounds of a royal palace. Although not an imperial city, Casablanca is the country’s economic capital and has several courses nearby, both established and in developing golf communities. Royal Golf Dar Es Salam
Mediterranean trail The so-called White City, Tangier, is home to Morocco’s first course, at the Royal Country Club of Tangier. Along its 500km of Mediterranean coastline are a 40-year-old course near Tetouan and a new golf resort near its eastern border, at Saida. An hour by road south of Tangier is another new golf resort, Port Lixus, with its course overlooking the Atlantic. Welcome to Morocco, the Kingdom of Golf. By Peter Ellegard 85
Cover Photo: Lumine Golf & Beach Club • www.lumine.com • © Kevin Murray Golf Photography
For more info visit www.iagto.com
Concorde House, Grenville Place, London, NW7 3SA, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8906 3377 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8906 8181 Email: info@iagto.com Website: www.iagto.com IAGTO Ltd. is registered in England as a professional membership organisation No. 3507678. SIC 9112. VAT 710 1940 78. Directors: P Walton, C Carugati, G Greenwood.