Canadian Stephen Ames, 58, wins the 47th edition of the Hassan II Trophy, a former European Tour event from 2010 to 2019 and now one of the dates of the PGA Tour Champions, the American senior circuit

Hassan II Trophy: Ames, for Canada!

Ames wins the Hassan II Trophy – Photo credit @ChampionsTour

In 1971, when King Hassan II launched its major international golf tournament at Morocco, he would undoubtedly not have imagined the incredible evolution of the event until this 47th edition of the year 2023. During the first twenty-two years, that is to say until the two victories of the immense Payne Stewart in 1992 and 1993, the Hassan II Trophy was the almost exclusive hunting ground of the great American players, barely disturbed in 1976 by the Spaniard Salvador Balbuena and the victory in 1991 of Vijay Singh, the Fijian who would (temporarily) take the place of world number 1 in Tiger Woods at the end of season 2004.

From 1994, the rest of the world rebelled; US stars will no longer be the only ones to appear on the charts. Even if David Toms won the title again in 1999, two years before his major success at the US PGA 2001, all nationalities – or almost – will end up fielding a player on the Moroccan Trophy list: Nick Price for Zimbabwe in 1995, Colin Montgomerie et Sam Torrance for Scotland, Santiago luna three times for Spain, Padraig harrington for Ireland, Ernie els for South Africa, and so many others…

“Globalization” persists and begins in 2010, when the Hassan II Trophy officially joins the European Tour. The Spanish and the English are still in the list of winners. But they are joined by Germany from Marcel Siem in 2013, South Korea Jeung-Hun Wang in 2016 and, for the first time in its 45 years of existence, a Frenchman, Alexander levy, who won the tournament in 2018!

For this "parade of Nations" to be further enriched by a new winning country, it will have been necessary to wait for the Trophy to enter a new era, by leaving the European Tour to integrate the PGA Tour Champions (American senior circuit) as only stage in Africa of the season. In 2020 in Marrakech, Brett Quigley, still an American, won...

But after a two-year blank break due to Covid, the "Return of the Champions" finally took place in February 2023 at the traditional Dar Es Salam course in Rabat. And the new nationality to be listed on the list has an exceptional flavor!

Stephen Ames, 58, is Canadian. He led the tournament from start to finish, from Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 February. Posting cards of 67 (-6) and 70 (-3) to be the wide leader at -9 after two rounds, he then achieves an absolute model of control of operations in the third final round: 18 leaves in a row! Not a tremor. Even when the Australian Mark Hensby, who played alongside him in the last part, began to attack him, signing two birdies to come back on his heels (-8 against -9).

Who was going to crack?… The answer to holes 13 and 14, where Hensby exploded with two double bogeys. Ames only had to unroll his infallible par machine to make the most of his first two exceptional days. Final victory at -9 ahead of Mark Hensby, still 2nd at -4, and a square of 3rd at -3: the Americans Quickley and Stankowki, the Swedish Karlsson and another Australian, Richard Green.

It is therefore a Canadian player who receives for the first time the famous Khanjar, a precious dagger set with stones from the Hassan II Trophy. One more nationality on the list… Or even two! Because originally, Stephen Ames, with two parents born in Trinidad and Tobago (father of English ancestry, mother of Portuguese antecedents), was Trinidadian!

In 1989, emulating a golfing grandmother who had been twice champion of Trinidad and Tobago, he won the Trinidad Open himself. Five years later, in 1994, it was still under the colors of Trinidad and Tobago that we could see him playing at the Lyon Open!

Then Canada became his home. So much so that he was one of the Olympic torch bearers at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. From now on, his life is in Calgary, where he co-owns several restaurants and where he devotes himself to the creation of a new 27-hole course, the Copithorne Club, the first Canadian course that will bear the Johnny Miller / Stephen Ames signature. A lifetime as a golfer...

Nathalie Vion

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