By Sarah Goodman
Rabat – Morocco’s golfers are getting their clubs in order ahead of two international golf tournaments for Golf Week 2018.
Rabat’s Royal Golf Dar Es-Salam will host the 24th Lalla Meryem Golf Cup and the 45th Hassan II Trophy, bringing together top golfers from around the world from April 16-22, 2018.
Organized by the Hassan II Trophy Golf Association, the tournaments welcome over 250 international athletes, both male and female, to the Rabat’s elite golf course.
The event’s trailer, released online earlier this month, offers aerial views of the golf course itself and promises top-notch talent, sportsmanship, and competition.
One hundred forty-four professional golfers will compete for the coveted gold dagger in the men’s tournament, while 126 professional golfers will compete for a “minaudiere” during for the women’s event.
Since 2010, both golf tournaments have been integrated into the PGA European Tour and the Ladies European Tour. According to the press release, the two events will be broadcast live on five continents and, based off figures from Golf Week 2017, the events hope to reach over 450 million viewers.
Morocco is the only country on either of the women and men’s European circuits to welcome both men and women to golfing tournaments in the same city, at the same interval, and at the same golf course.
Rabat will welcome international golfers such as Agathe Sauzon, Meghan Maclaren, Amandeep Drall, Danny Willet, Thomas Pieters, Victor Dubuisson, and Andy Sullivan. Morocco’s 22-year-old rising star, Yassine Touhami, will be contending for the Hassan II Trophy after qualifying earlier this month at the Atlas Pro Tour in Mohammedia.
Morocco’s own history with golf goes back more than 100 years. The country’s first golf course, the Tangérois, was established in 1914. It still exists today under the name of the Royal Country Club of Tangier.
The Hassan II Trophy was first created in 1971, and has welcomed contestants from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. The Lalla Meryem Cup was founded in 1993. Both events were hosted in Rabat until 2011, when they moved to Agadir. The tournaments were reinstated in Rabat in 2016.
In recent years, Morocco has been establishing itself as an international golfing destination. At the 2017 World Golf Awards held in Cartagena, Spain, Morocco was named the best place to golf in Africa.
“Golf is part of the development initiated by sports in Morocco,” said Prince Moulay Rachid, the Chairman of both the Hassan II Golf Trophy Association and the Royal Moroccan Golf Federation.
“Morocco aims to equip itself with high-performance and attractive infrastructures, so from Tangier to Dakhla and from Rabat to Saïdia, dozens of golf courses have emerged, both giving rise to vocations for young people and also in attracting consequential numbers of tourists eager to discover the Moroccan courses.”
The final awards ceremonies for both the Hassan II Trophy and the Lalla Meryem Cup will be held on Sunday, April 22.
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