The European Tour returns to Golf Royal D'Agadir for the third consecutive year for the ninth staging of the Moroccan Open this week.
Included in the field this week is Ryder Cup player Costantino Rocca as well as David Howell, winner of the Dubai Desert Classic and holder of the Number One position in the Volvo Order of Merit for much of the early part of the season. Among the other champions of 1999 playing this week are Van Phillips, winner of the Algarve Portuguese Open and Madeira Island Open Champion Pedro Linhart.
Golf Royal D'Agadir was designed by Robert Trent Jones inside the pastel shaded turreted walls of King Hassan II's palace. The narrow fairways and small, contoured greens put a premium on accuracy as the links meanders between dense clumps of eucalyptus trees and scrub and bullrush-filled ponds. But what makes the course so difficult is the 'cheriki' wind from the Atlantic, the undoing of many a golfer in past Moroccan Opens. The wind traditionally gets up in the afternoon to batter the later starters.
Twelve months ago Australian Stephen Leaney made the most of an early start time and secured his maiden European Tour title when he cruised to an eight-stroke triumph. Leaney shot four sub-70 rounds to record his overwhelming win, taking the lead at halfway and drawing away from the rest of the field as the tournament progressed. Leaney went on to win the TNT Dutch Open and after a marvellous season qualified for the US Open by finishing 11th in the Volvo Order of Merit so is unable to defend the title.
Other past champions include Ryder Cup players Howard Clark and David Gilford, the 1999 Ryder Cup Captain Mark James, Anders Forsbrand, Peter Hedblom, and Clinton Whitelaw.
Whitelaw is back again this year, forming part of the African team to play Europe in the Sahara Cup on the eve of the tournament. The African team of Jeff Hawkes, Younis El Hussain, Ian Hutchings, Tony Johnstone, Mohammed Makroune, Andrew McLardy, Roger Wessels and Whitelaw, will do battle with Europe's Andrew Beal, Alex Cjeka, Howell, Miguel Angel Martin, Phillips, Rocca, Fabrice Tarnaud and Phillip Walton as the traditional curtain raiser to the tournament. Last year Johnstone led the African team to a 3-1 victory.
