Cabot Links

In 2012, less than five years after Rod Whitman’s critically acclaimed Sagebrush course made its debut in British Columbia, another of his formidable designs was unveiled on the other side of the country in the remote province of Nova Scotia.

Cabot Links is partly located on an old coal mine just outside the small town of Inverness on the rugged west coast of Cape Breton Island and the generously proportioned fairways that now nestle amongst the sand hills overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence comprise Canada’s first genuine links layout.

The front nine plays considerably longer than the back nine, largely because the inward half contains four of the five short holes on the scorecard. The tiny 14th is perhaps the most thrilling of these par threes – measuring no more than 102 yards from the back markers – and it plays downhill to an infinity green that’s totally exposed to the elements.

A second course, Cabot Cliffs, was unveiled to the golfing public in 2015 so maybe, in the years to come, Inverness will become the iconic Canadian golfing destination that matches Bandon in the United States. That wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, of course, when you consider that one of the developers here is none other than Mike Keiser.