Canada’s First True Links Opens in Cape Breton

Has a Canadian golf course ever been more eagerly anticipated than Cabot Links?

Touted as the country’s first true links, the dramatic seaside layout on Cape Breton’s west coast became an international flagship for the Canadian golf industry with its launch in 2012 and, not incidentally, the savior of Inverness, a former mining town that has seen hard times since the coal shafts closed for good in 1953.

Built on land uncovered when the sea receded and designed more by Mother Nature than man, a true links is characterized by sandy soil, undulating terrain and native vegetation. Almost all of the world’s fewer than 250 true links are found in Scotland, Ireland and England. Cabot Links is one of just five courses in North America generally considered to qualify for the designation.

“Cabot Links could be the biggest thing to happen to Canadian golf in years,” forecast Stephen Johnston, the president of Global Golf Advisors, a Toronto-based consultancy firm. “The recession has brought golf course construction almost to a standstill across North America. Cabot Links is a real shot in the arm for golf in Cape Breton and Canada.”

Cape Breton, a ruggedly beautiful island of charming villages and spectacular vistas along the Cabot Trail, has long ranked among Canada’s top golf destinations. Located in the quiet north shore community of Ingonish is Highlands Links, a Stanley Thompson-designed masterpiece that has anchored Maritimes golf since 1941 but which, despite its name, is not a true links. Rounding out a strong roster are Bell Bay Golf Club, The Lakes Golf Club, Le Portage Golf Club and Dundee Resort and Golf Club.

From the moment of its opening Cabot Links became a golf tourism draw at least the equal of Highlands Links, which Golf Magazine has ranked as high as 57^th among the world’s top courses.

Constructed between the town and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cabot Links sprawls along a wind-buffeted shoreline that trails down into the dunes along the ocean and then back to higher ground. Each hole of the subtly moulded and strategic design by Canadian architect Rod Whitman, best known for his work at Edmonton’s Blackhawk Golf Club, offers panoramic sea views.

Especially memorable is the par-five second hole, where a well-protected green is set high on a dune. Just as good is the long par-four eleventh, with the harbour running along the entire length of the fairway.

And destined to become one of Canada’s signature holes is the diminutive fourteenth, a 102-yard par three featuring what’s best described as an “infinity green.” All that’s visible to the golfer from the tee is the green and the seemingly endless ocean.

Overlooking the 18^th green is an elegantly understated clubhouse, and offering sweeping fairway views is the quietly elegant Lodge at Cabot Links.

Cabot Links provides dozens of jobs for groundskeepers, caddies (in traditional links fashion, the course is cart-free, except for those with medical conditions) and service staff in a community of 2,000 that has long dreamed of building a golf course as a way to revive the local economy.

The road to completion was littered with obstacles, but perseverance by key players is finally paying off: The provincial government cleaned old mine tailings off the site, Toronto entrepreneur Ben Cowan-Dewar bought the land and worked with Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. He was joined by Chicago businessman Mike Keiser — renowned for Bandon Dunes, a golf resort he financed on the Oregon coast that includes four championship courses, including three of North America’s true links.

Just two years after the course’s opening, Inverness is displaying clear signs of its anxiously awaited civic renewal. Stylish new homes are under construction, real estate prices are climbing, and plans are afoot to spruce up the tired-looking main street.

Local tourism had previously focused on tours of the nearby Glenora Inn and Distillery, Canada’s only producer of single malt whiskey, salmon fishing on the Margaree River, and the twice-weekly harness races at Inverness Raceway. Townspeople also boast that their beach offers the warmest ocean waters north of the Carolinas, reaching summertime highs of more than 20 Celsius.

But golf has quickly become as essential to the fabric of life in Inverness as it is in Scotland’s St. Andrews.

Just as in that seaside town, glimpses of the green and rumpled links are visible from almost everywhere. A long public boardwalk extends between the beach and the fairways closest to the sea, enabling strollers in Inverness to feel a part of the action.

A second course, Cabot Cliffs, is being built by the acclaimed design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to the north of Inverness on a choice stretch of coastline cut by ravines and offering panoramic views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Almost as eagerly anticipated as its older sibling, Cabot Cliffs is scheduled to open in 2015.

(Article last updated August, 2014.)

 

 

Updated from an article by Canadian Golf Traveller editor Brian Kendall that originally appeared in The Globe and Mail.