Suzanne Pettersen - Lofoten Islands Norway - Photo © TPlassais / Swing-Feminin.com

With Laura Davies, Mike Weir or Victor Dubuisson

It is in Morocco and it is unique in the calendar of the two European circuits, the female and the male. For the only time of the season, with the Lalla Meryem Cup for the ladies and the Hassan II Trophy for the men organized at the same time at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, the players of the Ladies European Tour (blue course) and the players of the European Tour (red course) wield their irons simultaneously. This is how we can meet a Laura Davies or a Mike Weir (the Canadian winner of the Masters in 2003), a Gwladys Nocera or a Victor Dubuisson (great return of the French-reference), an Isabelle Boineau or the other top French guns like the Levy, Bourdy, Langasque, Havret, Jacquelin, etc… The two events, chaired by HRH Prince Moulay Rachid, have become essential: 23rd edition for the Lalla Meryem Cup and 44th edition for the Hassan II Trophy. Tuesday in Rabat, the Prince, brother of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, as every year played the women's pro-am, alongside the Moroccan player Maha Haddioui. Continuing in this the tradition launched more than forty years ago by the late King Hassan II, already an assiduous golfer.

Suzann, in the wake of his 3rd rank at ANA Inspiration

Suzann Pettersen is the super headliner of the Princess Lalla Meryem SAR Cup this year. At 36 years old, freshly married, the Norwegian winner of the Evian Championship in 2013 and of the LPGA Championship in 2007 (22 victories in the world, 14 million dollars in gains in 16 years of career), had never come to the Morocco, which very early favored the LPGA Tour. To say that the player from Oslo returns to LET to secure her place on the European Solheim Cup team (next August, in Des Moines, Iowa, Captain Annika Sörenstam) is not fanciful. Because the first four of the LET's Order of Merit will have their automatic qualification. But it is in any case by its world ranking (first four at the Rolex Rankings) that Pettersen has its place already almost guaranteed in the team of 12 players. Still brilliant 3rd in Ana Inspiration at the beginning of April, it is today 17th in the world and 2nd in Europe behind the Swedish Anna Nordqvist…

Isabelle Boineau interviewed in 2016 - © Nathalie Vion / Swing-Féminin.com

The real start of LET 2017 after three months of diet

Faced with this Suzann who comes straight from Rancho Mirage, in California, and this great performance in the first Major of the season, the permanent players of the Ladies European Tour will have to get busy. The young Spanish Nuria Iturrios, who had won the Cup in pouring rain during the 2016 edition, in the fierceness of her twenties and when she was pro only for 7 months (her second tournament as a professional !), will have a lot to do to imitate the Englishwoman Johanna Head, the only player to have kept her title in the Moroccan tournament, it was in 2003. After finishing 10th in the Order of Merit in 2016, Iturrios is not for now only 27th in the European ranking. That said, few conclusions to draw since the ladies of LET have only played ... 2 tournaments since the beginning of 2017: the Oates Victorian Open in February in Australia and the World Ladies Championship in Mission Hills, in March in China. A really light program, not to say starving, it was time for the diet to end!

Fourteen French women, big and small memories

At the start of the first round, this Thursday in Rabat: Gwladys Nocera, Isabelle Boineau, Jade Schaeffer, Valentine Derrey, Sophie Giquel-Bettan, Lucie André, Anne-Lise Caudal, Justine Dreher, Agathe Sauzon, Alexandra Bonetti, Ariane Provot, Camille Chevalier , Eva Gilly and Inès Lescudier. Fourteen Bleues who have not yet taken their seasonal marks. In the Order of Merit, Gwladys Nocera is 27th, Isabelle Boineau 38th, Alexandra Bonetti 49th, Justine Dreher and Agathe Sauzon 57th tied. But the Lalla Meryem Cup can be a game-changer. Gwladys Nocera, already winner in 2007 and in 2015, was also 2nd in 2014. Clearly one of his favorite tournaments. Isabelle Boineau also has very positive memories. Excellent 5th in 2016 at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, the Marseillaise had embarked on it for a fiery season, winning the Scottish Open in the summer and finishing 5th in the Order of Merit. As for Lucie André, who was 4th after three laps last year, before the pouring rain on Sunday disintegrated her game to make her fall back to 16th place, she has a little revenge to take this week on the Blue Course!

By Nathalie Vion, in Rabat.