European Tour plays Trophee Hassan II
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2010 Trophée Hassan II | Preview | 18 Mar 2010
The European Tour is in Morocco this week for the Trophee Hassan II, an event which dates back to 1971 but which is being played as a European Tour event for the first occasion in 2010.
The Royal Golf Dar Es Salam’s Blue and Red Courses will host a pro am format in the opening two rounds at which point the leading professionals will return to the Red Course layout for the final 36 holes.
With so much of the golfing focus of the world on Florida and Georgia over the next few weeks, many of Europe’s stars are there preparing for the first major of the year. As a result this is a field where only one player from the top 50 in the current World ranking is in the field, that being the Italian Francesco Molinari.
Molinari has developed into one of Europe’s best and against this field he should display such. He finished a meritorious 14th at last week’s WGC-CA event and in his last 19 starts worldwide has missed only one cut.
Rhys Davies was one of the stars of the Challenge Tour in 2009, winning twice and has carried that form on this season when 6th in Abu Dhabi and 3rd two weeks ago in Malaysia.
Darren Clarke is by far the most credentialed player in the field in terms of European Tour victories and despite missing the cut at the recent Malaysian Open has played well enough in other events in 2010 to be a consideration.
Alexander Noren finally broke through for his first win at the European Masters last year and has continued to put together several solid finishes since. He is the second highest world ranked player in the field at number 63 and should do well.
Surprisingly, Mark Brown and Andrew Tampion are the only two Australasians in the field.
