A PARADISE FOR GOLFING : MOROCCO

Shooting

Golf

Less than two-hour flight from Europe, and around six hour flight from the US, Morocco is today a paradise for golfers, where nature presents such a majestic spectacle, golf has found its roots and its culture with more than 200 holes to delight the dedicated player and designed by such international masters as Robert Trent Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Cabell B. Robinson. All the golf clubs are open to the public. The green fee varies between 10 and 50 US$. Most courses offer club hiring facilities as well as caddies or electric carts.

Golf was first introduced into Morocco at the beginning of the century even before football - and has since become a national passion. This craze for the game is also a reflection of royal favor, since golf, the king of sports, is the favorite sport of the late King Hassan II, who acquired international ranking by creating the competition for the elegant and much-prized Hassan II Trophy.

Many fairways are stretched around major cities of tourist destination. Several others are planned to be part of grandiose tourist compounds, such as financed by Portuguese capitals in the northern Mediterranean beach of Saidia, in the Oujda province, the Company Burch Morocco Development is also financing hotel units and an eight-hole-golf in Agadir.

Major Golf courses are located in Tangier, Mohammadia, El Jadida, Casa-Anfa, Meknes, Marrakesh, Agadir, and most particularly the Rabat Dar Essalam, golf course which is considered by specialists as one of the world's best courses.

At Marrakesh, the fairways are laid out on a plateau dominated by the eternal snows of the Atlas mountains, snake their way between the cypress and pine trees on the hills at Tangier, stand surrounded by a forest of century-old oaks at Rabat and by the joyful colors of the heather, tamarisk and gorse at Cabo Negro, follow the dunes at Agadir and even extend to the heart of the imperial city of Meknes where they form, part of the Royal Palace park.

The emphasis is not on sport tourism; those diplomats posted in Rabat may confirm this thanks to the Royal Golf at Dar-Es-Salaam at eight miles from the city-center.

In the El Jadida Royal Golf Club, the invigorating fragrance of pine and eucalyptus carried on the sea air... A falcon flying over the bunker on hole number 8 to slip away into the blue of the sky... At the 12th, the still waters of a lake mirror the clouds... On the 14th, magnificent araucarias, standing like rows of strange vegetable sculptures along the fairway... On the 17th, you can contemplate the shimmering white town of El Jadida... On number 18, the unspoiled beaches and dunes flowering with tamarisk and mimosa. Wherever the golfer may be on the Royal El Jadida course, Cabell B. Robinson has ensured that he will be surrounded by stunning natural beauty.

There is another golf course of remarkable maintenance, the Marrakech one, the oldest in Morocco where the greens are surrounded by palm-trees.

There is also the nine-hole golf course in Tangier located in the city residential area: "la montagne".

In Meknes, the golf course is designed within the old walls of palace of this imperial city.

Whether in northern Morocco, like in Cabo Negro, near Tetouan, as in Southern Morocco, in Taroudant, golf worshipers may find it easy to dedicate themselves to the love of the small ball, those who look after it and find it rather in the hole.