Morocco is situated on the north western corner of Africa with Algeria to the east and Mauritania to the south. The Moroccan coastline stretches from the Atlantic, past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, giving the country significant strategic control over traffic entering and leaving the Med.

Most of the thirty-five million residents of “the Western Kingdom” – as its Arab name translates to – live to the west of the Atlas Mountains because the inhospitable Sahara desert lies on the other side of this range running down the spine of the country.

Marrakech attracts the bulk of the tourists and Fez is a major cultural and religious centre but the coastal cities of Agadir, Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier are where modern day Moroccan movers and shakers operate.

It’s also where many of the top Moroccan golf courses are located, with some long established courses (Royal Country Club de Tanger was formed in 1914) as proof of a strong golfing tradition dating back more than a century. It's a pity European golfers have been slow to recognise such an accessible, affordable, all year round destination lies right on their doorstep because Morocco has much to offer by way of top quality courses.

A trio of new courses has opened in the last couple of years but you’ll have to travel quite a bit if you want to play them. The Teelal course at Golf de Saïdia is situated in the northeast corner of the county, next to the Algerian border, where French pro golfer-turned architect Nicolas Joakimides has fashioned a very linksy layout.

Across in the northwest of the country, just a short distance from Tangier, the 18-hole layout at Al Houara is a new production from Graham Marsh Golf Design in collaboration with Vijay Singh which is due to open late 2020. On the other hand, 450 kilometres further southeast, at Ifrane in the Middle Atlas Mountains, the latest Moroccan Jack Nicklaus design at Michlifen has garned plenty of favourable press coverage, and rightly so.

We last updated our Top 20 Golf Courses of Morocco rankings in June 2020. Click the link to read the story.