Tazegzout Golf – Review and Rating

The course starts out with an easy par five. Easy in that it is relatively short and wide, but not easy in that the fairway slants to the right and has a few deceptive bunkers that tend to collect your tee shot.

With the course built on a hill 80 m above the ocean, the slanting fairway is a feature of most of the holes, so you have to play strategically.

At hole three, an uphill par 3 with a semi-blind tee shot, it starts to get more difficult, and on hole four you get to the first of many holes with another common feature for the course: ravines. Again with a slanted fairway, you first have to clear a long waste area, and then avoid the bunkers and ravine on the left. A really nice hole if you make it.

This theme continues for the next few nice but unremarkable holes.

The finishing hole on the front nine is one of the best on the course. A par 5 with an elevated tee, you again have to clear a long waste area to reach the fairway below. The rest of the hole then plays uphill to a well-bunkered green. If you are a long hitter you can reach in two, but the risks are many. Nice.

The second nine is even better than the first, with some truly remarkable holes.

Hole 10 is again downhill to a wide but slanting fairway, followed by an approach over a ravine/stream. The streams on the course are usually dry, so you can sometimes find your ball. However, it is often resting by a rock, and you often have to drop for unplayable lie. This is also true in the mostly rocky rough and waste areas. Very rocky.

The following holes play back and forth to the cliffs overlooking the ocean, serving up some spectacular views.

The finish starts on the 14th, a long par four with, surprise, a slanting fairway and an approach over a stream. If it sounds repetitive, it isn’t. Each hole is unique with it’s own twists an turns.

The last three holes are what will make you come back over and over again to this course.

Sixteen is a downhill par 4 with a green tucked into the hillside overlooking the ocean. The difficulty here is the wide ravine protecting the green. If your tee shot is too long, you could go into the ravine. If it is too short, your approach will be tricky to a green with ravines on three sides and a mountain side on the fourth.

If you survived the 16th, the 17th serves up an even bigger treat. A par 3 over a deep ravine to an island carved into the mountainside and protected by several bunkers, this is the signature hole of the course, and definitely, a hole that should be on your bucket list of “holes to play before you die”.

The course finishes with a reachable par five to a large green just below the clubhouse. Reachable, but again protected by numerous large bunkers, and with a slanted fairway that makes it hard to judge how the ball will bounce. And if you go over the green, your ball will be lost. A nice finishing hole that will determine the outcome of many matches.

Who should play this course? It is suitable to players of all levels, but if you have trouble with reliably hitting tee shots of 130 meters you will have a hard time here, as many of the holes start with long waste areas and ravines. You also need to be able to hit reasonably straight, since at a desert course like this, as soon as you leave the fairway you are in a bushy, rocky wasteland and your ball is often unplayable. But if you play strategically and to your level, you should be fine and will want to come back again and again to this great course. Just don’t be greedy, as the starter reminded us.