For golfers, variety is the spice of life. They often look for a golfing holiday that involves playing on a selection of courses, each with its own character and in different environments but with the minimum amount of travel involved.
The Kingdom of Morocco fits the bill perfectly. With its choice of courses in exotic Marrakech and in beach resorts along its Atlantic coastline, it offers a heady combination that gives golfers every option from short golf breaks to long stays and multi-destination tours during which they can play a different course every day if they want to.
No journey takes more than three hours, whether it is on the many flights from airports around Europe or transfers by road between its main golfing centres. And some are much less, thanks to fast, new highways that link Morocco’s cities and holiday resorts and have dramatically cut travel times in recent years.
The ancient royal city of Marrakech is Morocco’s golf hub, with 10 of the country’s 30-plus venues to choose from. All are in close proximity to each other and some are just minutes from its international airport, allowing a round to be comfortably played straight after golfers land and pick up their luggage and a stress-free nine or 18 holes on the morning of their departure followed by a relaxing lunch if they have an afternoon flight.
Even within Marrakech, the courses offer a tremendous variety of settings and ambience, from the arid, desert scrub setting of one of its newest facilities, Assoufid, to the lush fairways of the venerable Royal Golf Marrakech course, lined by mature cypress, palm, eucalyptus, olive and fruit trees that provide a haven for birds.
Yet all courses in Marrakech share one thing in common; the nearby, majestic High Atlas Mountains form an impressive backcloth for golfers – a spectacle even more striking in winter when the snow-capped peaks contrast the verdant hues of the greens, tees and fairways and the crisp blue skies of a typical winter’s day in the Red City.
For golfers who like to ski, Marrakech is one of the few places in the world where it is possible to do both on the same day! Located 2,600 metres up in the High Atlas Mountains, Africa’s highest ski resort, Oukaimeden, is just a 90-minute drive from Marrakech and offers five ski runs with nursery and intermediate slopes, a chairlift, drag lifts, a ski school and ski equipment hire, as well as mountain-top restaurants.
Skiing is possible from December until March, depending on snow conditions. Drive there from Marrakech to spend the morning skiing and you still have time for an afternoon round of golf back in the city.
The Atlas Mountains also frame a number of holes on the courses of popular beach resort Agadir. A new highway has brought the travel time between Marrakech and Agadir down to less than three hours, skirting the mountains for the entire journey and giving a glimpse into the life of the Berbers, whose villages cling to the steep slopes.
Agadir has three courses in very close proximity to each other just a short drive from its beach-front, all-inclusive hotels, plus another just to the north in surfing hotspot Taghazout Bay where a new Hyatt hotel has just opened there next to the Tazegzout Golf Course, which itself only opened in late 2014.
A desert links-style course with a cliff-top layout that gives golfers commanding views of the Atlantic from many holes, Tazegzout’s fairways are dotted by argan trees, the nuts of which produce an essential oil that is now found in top beauty and healthcare products worldwide as well as being used in spa treatments of local hotels.
The main argan-growing area is between Agadir and Essaouira, another beach holiday resort two hours to the north with a Gary Player golf course and adjacent Sofitel hotel. Essaouira is also just two hours from Marrakech by road, making it eminently possible to enjoy a three-centre golf holiday incorporating beaches and desert, all the while in the shadow of Morocco’s soaring Atlas Mountains.
For golfers, it’s a combination that is bound to give them a rocky mountain high.
END
For the Golf in Morocco Photo Library, visit www.iagto.com/MAphotos
