• Defending champion Michael Hoey will attempt to become just the second player from Northern Ireland to make a successful defence of a European Tour title. Should he achieve the feat he would follow Darren Clarke, who won back-to-back titles at the 1999 and 2000 English Open.
• Should Hoey claim his fifth career European Tour title he would have won at least one event in four of the last five years dating back to the 2009 season. When he won in Morocco in 2012, it was his third victory in the space of 25 tournaments, dating back to the first of his two triumphs in 2011, firstly at the Madeira Islands Open, then the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
• On his way to victory in 2011, David Horsey made a hole-in-one on the second hole in day four. He became only the fourth player in European Tour history to make an ace in the final round and go onto win. He followed Thongchai Jaidee (2004 Carlsberg Malaysian Open), Miguel Angel Jiménez (2008 BMW PGA Championship) and Alvaro Quiros (2011 Omega Dubai Desert Classic).
• The Trophée Hasan II was first played in 1971 and is Morocco’s longest running sporting event and first won by 1969 US Open Champion, Orville Moody. The tournament is rich in history with no fewer than nine Major Champions prevailing. They are: Moody (1971), Billy Casper (1973, 75), Lee Trevino (1977), Vijay Singh (1991), Payne Stewart (1992, 93), Nick Price (1995), David Toms (1999), Padraig Harrington (2007) and Ernie Els (2008).
• All three previous winners of the tournament are competing since the event became part of The European Tour in 2010. They are: Rhys Davies (2010), David Horsey (2011) and Michael Hoey (2012).There are two past winners of the event playing this week, before the tournament became part of The European Tour International Schedule. They are: Ignacio Garrido (1996) and Santiago Luna (1998, 2002 and 2003). Luna is the only three-time winner.
• Rhys Davies, Michael Hoey and David Horsey, the last three winners, all graduated from the European Challenge Tour in 2009, 2005 and 2008 respectively.
• The Golf du Palais Royal is no stranger to staging European Tour completion, having been one of two courses to host this event in 2011, (along with the Golf de L’Océan course). Before then the Golf du Palais entertained the Moroccan Open between 1993-96 and again between 1997-99.
