AESGOLF adds Morocco to its competition calendar
Starting in March 2026, the Spanish Seniors Association (AESGOLF) will hold at least one of its tournaments in Morocco, whose more than 40 courses are a formidable spearhead of Rabat's grand project to place the country at the forefront of tourism, sports, and culture
The more than 5,000 members of AESGOLF, one of the largest and most active sports associations in Spain, will have another international event to add to their already packed competition calendar next year, in all its male, female, and mixed categories.
To seal the agreement and test the potential of this new competition, fourteen regional delegates from AESGOLF, from Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, and Aragon, held a tournament against a selection of journalists invited by the Moroccan Tourist Office, which chose the impressive Royal Golf Club Dar Es Salam in Rabat for the occasion.
This course hosts one of the continent's major tournaments, the Hassan II Trophy, which has been contested on several occasions by Spanish players such as Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Santiago Luna, and Juan Quirós, alongside other international stars.
The Dar Es Salam, a 54-hole course with two 18-hole courses and one 9-hole course, is compared to the Real Club Puerta de Hierro in Spain because its members include the most illustrious names of the great Moroccan families who are fans of this sport.
The impressive 6,400-meter course known as the Red Course, dotted with extensive lakes and more than ample bunkers, also houses Roman ruins. Together with courses in other Moroccan imperial cities such as Fez and Meknes, as well as thirteen other clubs, it forms part of the so-called Cultural Experience, one of four golf groups available to visitors.
The other three are: the Mediterranean Experience, which includes, among others, the Royal Club of Tangier and Cabo Negro in Tetouan; the Atlas Experience, which brings together the nine clubs in the Marrakech area; and the Sun Experience, with the five clubs overlooking the Atlantic coast near Agadir.
More than a hundred years after English architects Cotton & Pennink designed the country's first golf course in Tangier in 1914, Morocco now aspires to offer visiting golfers such a wide and unrivalled range of cultural, gastronomic, and leisure activities that they will not only return but also settle down for long stays and seasons.
The snapshots are of the Conrad Rabat Arzana.
This is leading to a radical transformation of large and small cities, where construction projects are multiplying, giving rise to new neighborhoods, promenades, river and waterway clean-ups and, above all, a large number of perfectly clean parks with carefully tended gardens.
The snapshots are of the Conrad Rabat Arzana.
The Moroccan Royal Family has made a special effort to make Rabat the country's leading green city, turning it into one of the most attractive capitals on the African continent, as can be seen from the terraces that house the emblematic Hassan Tower and the mausoleum of the architect of Morocco's independence, King Mohamed V, grandfather of the current monarch, Mohamed VI, who in turn gives his name to the tower, designed by Spanish architect Rafael de la Hoz, and which is now the tallest building in Morocco.
The building is located in Salé, the city opposite Rabat, both divided by the Bou Regreg River, on whose Rabat bank the impressive new National Theater has been erected, designed by the great Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
For the annals of this new project, it is worth noting that this first preliminary and friendly tournament saw a surprising and indisputable victory for the journalists over the AESGOLF seniors. Elena Jiménez (TVE) was the overall individual winner, while the media team, including Atalayar, won the team classification.
