Moroccan star Maha Haddioui secured a career-best third place finish in the 2018 Investec South African Women’s Open last season and is excited to be back at Westlake Golf Club and in a country that she loves returning to.
“I am really happy to come back to South Africa, especially coming back to Cape Town and the same course as last year. I know a lot of people here and love the atmosphere.”
Maha, who represented Morocco in the Rio 2016 Olympic golf competition, has fond memories from last year’s performance and is hoping that her course knowledge will provide the platform for another great week.
“I’m really excited about this week. I like the course and know it well. It’s kind of funny, as you need to fade the ball a lot around this course and a strength of my game is how I shape it with a draw. But with the course not really fitting my game, it made me focus more on targets and where I need to position the ball. It’s ironic and golf is complicated sometimes. But by having to use more imagination with shots and thinking about the shape of the hole, it really worked. I am taking confidence into the week based on my performance and many great memories from the tournament last season.”
Maha, who finish in third place on four-under par, would like to go two spots better this time around and head home to Morocco with the trophy.
“It would be simply amazing to win the 2019 Investec South African Women’s Open. However, I have come from three tough weeks in Australia, so I am first focusing on having a solid week but to get the win would be awesome.”
Maha will take to the course at 08:50 local time on Thursday, playing with England’s Rachael Goodall and Flora Peuch from France. There is a world class field full of global stars who will be teeing it up this week at Westlake Golf Club. Entry is free to all three rounds and there is ample public parking.
