rickg
Money List Winner
Played 3 rounds at this Kyle Phillips designed course last weekend with 8 other players and our pro.
The course was very dry and unfortunately this affected the fringes and made chipping around the greens tricky. The bunkers also suffered and were very crusty making play out of them a bit of a lottery.
it's a long course from the back tees, over 7,000 yards, but playing in 29 deg heat meant the ball carried well through the air and rolled on the fairways. Even so, most second shots were played with long irons or hybrids.
3 of the par 3's were playing at over 200 yards and 2 of them over water with min 185 yard carries. it's not a course for short hitters off the backs.
Scoring was made more difficult due to a fairly stiff breeze.
Each day started with a breakfast of Morrocan pancakes, (delicious) followed by a 20 minute taxi ride to the course. We hired trolleys for around £5 with a couple of the older guys hiring buggies for £40 per round. Trollies and buggies secured, we headed to the range for a warm up followed by a 2 hour video coaching session. The practice ground had also suffered due to the heat and the grass wasn't growing back too well making it difficult to find solid ground to hit off. The practice green and bunkers were Ok though and we spent a lot of our teaching time there.
Lunch usually consisted of a Tuna Mayo baguette for a fiver and a glass of beer at £6 for a 25cl bottle!!
We then sorted out the groups and headed off to the 1st tee. Unfortunately for us, there was a French teaching pro's tournament on and the pace of play was snail like.....each of our 3 rounds took around 5 hours which in 26-29 deg heat is pretty hard going. There was a lot of standing around!
Golf was followed by a few beers in the beautiful club house, (not many at those prices), then back to the hotel for the freebies! We stayed at the Riu Tikada Gardens Hotel in Marrakech, which was all inclusive. The food was excellent with plenty of choice, the lamb tagine being a firm favourite.
The course is usually in much better condition than we found it and we were unlucky to time our visit with the pro's event. However, with the weather in the UK meaning a lot of courses were closed or unplayable, it was nice to get away in the sun for some guaranteed golf.
Price was £700 which included flights, 3 nights in all inclusive hotel, 4 rounds of golf (we played our final round at Samalah Golf Club), all tuition and practice balls. We payed approx £100 each on top for taxis and a kitty.
Morroco is definitely an up and coming golfing destination and well worth a visit.
the group:
par 3 carry over water:
Atlas Mountains in the background:
Fairway approach:
Clubhouse:
view out to the 18th:
The Weather!
Panoramic:
tha Marrakech Cup:
bromance on the practice range:
typical dry areas:
The course was very dry and unfortunately this affected the fringes and made chipping around the greens tricky. The bunkers also suffered and were very crusty making play out of them a bit of a lottery.
it's a long course from the back tees, over 7,000 yards, but playing in 29 deg heat meant the ball carried well through the air and rolled on the fairways. Even so, most second shots were played with long irons or hybrids.
3 of the par 3's were playing at over 200 yards and 2 of them over water with min 185 yard carries. it's not a course for short hitters off the backs.
Scoring was made more difficult due to a fairly stiff breeze.
Each day started with a breakfast of Morrocan pancakes, (delicious) followed by a 20 minute taxi ride to the course. We hired trolleys for around £5 with a couple of the older guys hiring buggies for £40 per round. Trollies and buggies secured, we headed to the range for a warm up followed by a 2 hour video coaching session. The practice ground had also suffered due to the heat and the grass wasn't growing back too well making it difficult to find solid ground to hit off. The practice green and bunkers were Ok though and we spent a lot of our teaching time there.
Lunch usually consisted of a Tuna Mayo baguette for a fiver and a glass of beer at £6 for a 25cl bottle!!
We then sorted out the groups and headed off to the 1st tee. Unfortunately for us, there was a French teaching pro's tournament on and the pace of play was snail like.....each of our 3 rounds took around 5 hours which in 26-29 deg heat is pretty hard going. There was a lot of standing around!
Golf was followed by a few beers in the beautiful club house, (not many at those prices), then back to the hotel for the freebies! We stayed at the Riu Tikada Gardens Hotel in Marrakech, which was all inclusive. The food was excellent with plenty of choice, the lamb tagine being a firm favourite.
The course is usually in much better condition than we found it and we were unlucky to time our visit with the pro's event. However, with the weather in the UK meaning a lot of courses were closed or unplayable, it was nice to get away in the sun for some guaranteed golf.
Price was £700 which included flights, 3 nights in all inclusive hotel, 4 rounds of golf (we played our final round at Samalah Golf Club), all tuition and practice balls. We payed approx £100 each on top for taxis and a kitty.
Morroco is definitely an up and coming golfing destination and well worth a visit.
the group:
par 3 carry over water:
Atlas Mountains in the background:
Fairway approach:
Clubhouse:
view out to the 18th:
The Weather!
Panoramic:
tha Marrakech Cup:
bromance on the practice range:
typical dry areas:
