Travel & Leisure

Large fairways

As soon as you begin the first hole, you are bewitched! On this start as on all the others, you feel like walking on a thick and plush carpeting. The 18 starts exceptional qualities are the first and most evident component of the Mogador.

So that the course might accommodate the most players, Gary Player has designed 6 starting slots for each hole. From the black balls (6 608m) to the pink (4050), including the white (6491), the yellow (6068), the blue (5519) and the red (4760), the South-African designer makes everybody happy, seniors or juniors, and anybody can begin with the blue balls without feeling ashamed of oneself! The pink starts, a Mogador exclusive, allow the beginners or the clumsy ones to have a good time without preventing the champs to breeze through the holes!
Especially as Mogador has got very wide freeways –and that’s its second exclusive component- nearly as wide as Mazagan (see article), except the 16th hole, but considered the easiest. And on all these slots, same quality: the same green, thick and soft grass…
« The beauty of the course » according to Gary Player.
Once you have put your tee on 1, let the beauty of the marine landscape bathe your soul… What you realize firstis that the fairway is really, really wide, and the bunkers numerous and deep, as Gary Player likes them to be. On the green, all you have to do is putting twice, but that does not come easy, with its large, with quick but treacherous slopes not always easy to negotiate. The greens quality and width are the golf course third high-value component; and where you put your flag can make your course easy or… maddening!
Once you have hit hole 1, you know what you can expect.


Signature holes

The feeling you are in a manicured garden comes with hole 13. Where the view is concerned, that’s the best signature hole with n° 17, although it’s the only blind hole on the course (aim at the tall palm-tree, it will do the trick!), but if you take time to turn around before hitting your second ball, you’ll enjoy the most beautiful panoramic view on the ocean and Mogador island. As far as the game is concerned, hole 5 is one of Gary Player’s favourite (the longest of the course). But don’t let your ball go left, as a deep set bunker protects a steeply double plateau green. Depending on the flag position, you might make birdie or double, even triple bogey on this apparently easy shot. Believe ME!!!

After golfing

The « Sofitel Essaouira Mogador Golf et Spa », close to the course, is one of the chain seven luxury Moroccan hotels. Entering the lobby, you can but stare in awe before its modernity and magnificent atmosphere.
A green wall, Essaouira dry stones and wooden lattices stand in harmony with the contemporary lines of the lobby, opening on a breathtaking view of the pool, the golf course and the ocean.
140 luxury rooms, 5 prestige suites, 2 Mogador suites, 26 villas and 2 Lacoste villas are part of the accomodation.



Contemporary rooms and suites

The very spacious and contemporary rooms and suites nicely mix deep colors, Moorish patterns and exotic woods. Each has got a large balcony or a terrace with a spectacular view on the golf course and the Mogador island, right in front of Essaouira.
The wide open bathrooms are built right behind the bed heads which face the ocean. But they can be closed through wooden latticed sliding doors. Each is graced with a huge deep blue tiled bath matching the pool and a spacious shower, elegantly complementing the room.
For the golfer, but not only, the hotel acts like a well-being cocoon, especially if he goes and enjoys the spa, where he or she can choose a “golfer special” designed care.