Golfers all set to swap Mellor for Marrakech

TWO golfers from Mellor are all set for a trip of a lifetime when they take part in the Morocco Matchplay tournament.

Retired police officer Ian Appleton, 56, will jet off to Marrakech to take part in the Senior Pairs finals of the tournament along with Philip Housley, also 56, a kennels owner, in the hunt for glory.

Ian, a member of Mellor and Townscliffe Golf Club has a 14-handicap while Philip, of Woodford Golf Cub, has a six-handicap.

They will join 30 other golfers who qualified from two regional finals held last year to play in the grand final, which takes place from February 7 to February 10.

A spokesman for Morocco Matchplay, powered by HowDidiDo organising the event said:

“All of them will all enjoy complementary return flights from Gatwick to Marrakech, courtesy of the event’s partner British Airways as well as five nights’ luxury bed-and-breakfast accommodation in the five-star Palmeraie Palace; four rounds of championship golf on the Robert Trent Jonesdesigned PalmGolf Marrakech Palmeraie, a welcome cocktail reception and a last-night gala dinner and prize presentation.”

The event includes four competitions in total which are being sponsored by the Moroccan National Tourist Office (MNTO) these are, singles, pairs, mixed pairs and senior pairs.

Each finalist will have played up to four qualifying rounds just to have reached the regional final, with the knockout rounds taking place between June and September, and the regional finals in October last year.

Previously, the event formerly known as the HowDidiDo Matchplay was played in Rabat, in 2015, and Essaouira, in 2016.

And, as part of the continued partnership with the MNTO, the competition continues to visit different areas of the beautiful North African country.

HowDidiDo is Europe’s largest golfing community, holding more than 21 million rounds of golf along with the handicaps, results and scores of more than 1,300,000 UK golf club members. Around 2,000 golf clubs and more than 460,000 golfers currently use the HowDidiDo system.