Disc Golf in Morocco
Even if you have paid the most minuscule amount of attention to our sport, you know that Disc Golf has gone Global. Paul McBeth and his Foundation seem to be putting up a new course in a new country just about every week, and we see more international players showing up on the DGPT and EPT. And there is even an entire island chain disc golf destination. As this growth continues, I keep finding amazing people out there that are on the forefront of this movement, and this week I was able to reach out to Tariq Benchrifa about his efforts to bring disc golf to Morocco.
Tariq discovered disc golf via the FSB Forum in Koln, Germany. It was from his time on this forum that he had the idea to bring disc golf to Morocco. The first thing he did was create the Association Marocaine Disc Golf, the official organization for disc golf in the country. They are, “A membership organization dedicated to the promotion and sustainable growth of disc golf.” While it’s only been a few months since its inception, Tariq has a few short-term goals. The most pressing is to build a disc golf course, and he already has a proposal in place and is working on funding and implementation. And then he wants to build a great disc golf team, as well as bring a disc golf to the children via program curriculum in schools and other outside organizations. Because he is basically doing this on his own, Tariq understands the importance of building a grass roots movement, as well as getting the youth involved as early as possible.
Once he gets his course in place, Tariq will set his sights on some rather lofty goals for Morocco. First, he wants to create a disc golf league that will run on a regular basis and be the foundation for building interest in not only disc golf, but competitive disc golf. He has plans to produce the first ever National Disc Golf tournament, with the idea of expanding that into an international event. He also wants to collaborate with the PDGA to create PDGA Africa to help organize and administer events in that region. And finally, he wants to see a university league take shape to bring competitive College level disc golf to his part of the world. As he is planning and executing this list, he is also getting out there to play disc golf and learn about running events. “I want to play disc golf tournaments in Europe, or anywhere, to have networking opportunities and to learn how these events are ran so I can bring that knowledge to my first event,” Tariq says.
I think what is most impressive is the fact that Tariq is out there doing all of this on his own with no funding or collaboration with any other organizations, at least for now. I am hoping that this article will help shed some light on his efforts and help streamline connections to organizations like EDGE and the Paul McBeth Foundation to help Tariq realize his dreams. For now, Tariq is best reached on LinkedIn, either on his personal or the AMDG page.
If you are interested in helping, you can also reach out to us here at Gatekeeper Media, specifically me at thediscgolfhunter@gmail.com, or reach out to us on our socials. We wish Tariq all the best as he pursues his goal of bringing the great game of disc golf to Morocco.
