PAUL O'HARA LETS IT SLIP AFTER TURN IN AL MAADEN CLASSIC

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Paul O'Hara finished the first day down in joint 37th place in the EPD Tour event at Marrakesh, Morocco - the Al Maaden Classic - after going well to the turn.
The Motherwell man returned a one-over-par 73 to trail the pacemaker, former British amateur champion Reinier Saxton from the Netherlands by eight strokes.
O'Hara bogeyed the long fourth but birdied the long seventh and par-4 nine to be out in one-under 35. On the inward journey, Paul could not get a birdie putt to drop and he bogeyed the 10th and short 15th for two-over 38 home.
Saxton made a flying start with birdies at the first four holes before he had his only bogey of the day at the fifth. Out in 33, the flying Dutchman got it home in 32 with birdies at the 11th, long 13th, long 16th and the 17th.
If you think Al Maaden is a pitch-and-putt course - think again! I was there last October, running the inaugural Morocco Golf Festival, and it looked a very good test of golf.
But Saxton is only one shot ahead going into the second round. He leads from Germany's Bernd Ritthammer (32-34) and Switzerland's Ken Benz (also 32-34).

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AL MAADEN - YOU COULD PLAY HERE AT THE MOROCCO GOLF FESTIVAL

A view of the 18th green and the Al Maaden clubhouse with Morocco's Atlas Mountains in the background. The 2nd Morocco Golf Festival will be returning to Al Maaden and calling in at four other courses in the vicinity of the "Red City" of Marrakesh in October (8th to 15th). The "Red City" tag comes from the colour of the local stone with which most of the buildings are made.
The following week (October 18-21), down on the Atlantic coastline at Agadir, there are the inaugural Moroccan international amateur stroke-play championships for men and women at The Ocean Course, with the senior championships taking place on Golf du Soleil.
Last but not least, if your handicap is not low enough to get into these championships, I've arranged a 54-hole Stableford competition for men and women, senior men and senior women at The Dunes course.
If you want to read details of all these events, log on to the Menara Travel website - http://www.morocco4golf.com/
PLAY GOLF IN AFRICA FOR A WEEK (or two)
AND BRAG ABOUT IT FOR A YEAR (or two)!

Colin Farquharson
PS I can guarantee you won't see a single soldier and maybe just the odd policeman, although I never saw one at Marrakesh last October. Morocco is not Egypt. Morocco is not Tunisia, Libya or Bahrain.