Is there golf in Morocco, and where are the best courses?

I get asked this more than people expect, and the honest answer is that Morocco quietly became one of the best-value golf destinations in the world. Marrakech is the hub. I've sent guests to Royal Golf Marrakech, the oldest course in the country and one Winston Churchill used to play — olive groves, orange trees, and the snow-dusted Atlas sitting on the horizon while you putt. It feels less like a sports outing and more like walking through a garden that happens to have flags in it.

If you want something more modern and dramatic, Assoufid is the one I steer keen golfers toward. It's a links-style desert course with no surrounding villas to spoil the view — just raw landscape and the High Atlas. Amelkis and the Robert Trent Jones-designed PalmGolf courses are the other Marrakech staples, manicured and championship-grade. Most of my clients play two or three different courses across a stay and treat each as a half-day, finishing with lunch on a clubhouse terrace.

Marrakech isn't the only option. Rabat's Royal Golf Dar Es Salaam (another Trent Jones masterpiece carved through a cork-oak forest) hosts a European-tour event and is genuinely world-class. Agadir has the Atlantic breezes and several resort courses, and there's golf near Casablanca too. The big practical win is the season: while Europe is frozen, Marrakech greens are playable, so winter is peak golf time here, not a dead zone.

A few things I always tell people: book tee times in advance over the high season (November to April), bring or rent decent shoes for the desert courses, and budget for a buggy in the heat. Green fees are a fraction of what you'd pay in Dubai or Spain. We can fold a couple of rounds into a wider Marrakech-and-Atlas itinerary so non-golfing partners get spa days and souk time while you play — that combination is one of our most-requested luxury setups.