A GOLFING MECCA BECKONS IN MARRAKECH

Mediterranean sunsets and the quiet sighs of the moors set the tone for a golfing adventure to this wonderful resort.

- BENNY TEO

The city of Marrakech, a name that evokes a smoky visage of exotic beauty set along the edge of the Sahara Desert, is many things to the people who visit. One thing it has not been known for, is golf.

Strangely, golfers have been travelling to Morocco for years, though not in the kind of numbers that it perhaps deserves. With a fabulous climate – it gets a good couple of months of hot sun more a year than Mediterranean Europe - wonderful food, surprisingly good local wine, and a rich culture that is a heady mishmesh of European, African and Middle Eastern influences, visiting here is akin to playing golf in paradise; Spain and Portugal are clearly much bigger markets yet those who do make the pilgrimage across the Strait of Gibraltar often get a truly memorable experience.

For years, the only course in the Red City was the Royal Golf Club, built in the 1920s, where you are met by a very traditional, flat, some might say boring course (though now extended to 27 holes) and the obligatory use of a local caddie with limited language skills but also good knowledge. Then in the 1990s came the Palmeraie, designed by Robert Trent Jones Senior, and Amelkis, courtesy of veteran US designer Cabell B. Robinson. Both provided enjoyable rounds though little to really set the pulses racing.

A rather grand vision, led in part by the boom of low-cost airlines mainly from the UK (it’s just a 3-hour flight from London), saw many more courses planned. These were mainly in the flat, fertile lands in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains south of the city, with Assoufid (a private development) and Samanah (Jack Nicklaus designed) leading the way. The economic crash of 2008, though, tempered ambitions somewhat.