Click on the photo above to view the teaser trailer for Cabot Links, a new Rod Whitman-designed golf course opening next year in Nova Scotia (10 holes will be open for play July 1, 2011). Cabot is billing itself as its country's first true links course, with rolling, firm-and-fast conditions hard by the sea. Mike Keiser is involved in the project, and as owner of Bandon Dunes, he knows a thing or two about building successful, remote links golf courses. Keiser also had a role in Lost Farm, another rugged links course that opened last year in Tasmania (adjacent to Tom Doak's Barnbougle Dunes).
Like a contestant on The Bachelor, I feel a strong 'connection' to Cabot Links. The pull of links golf is just too strong. Once you've played the game it was meant to be played, you'll really never be the same. Plus, my in-laws vacationed in the Cape Breton area last summer. Knowing they were heading that way, I told them they simply had to check out this great new course that was currently under construction. Of course, I fully expected to completely ignore my suggestion, like they usually do (case in point: Cape Kidnappers during their New Zealand vacation in 2007). Lo and behold, I received a call in the middle of the day a couple of weeks later -- my in-laws were standing on the property amidst all of the bulldozers, watching dirt being pushed around. I frantically tried to arrange a tour of the place, but they were back on the road by the time I tracked down the developer.
Just this past week, I ran into my father-in-law Ken at a wake for my wife's aunt. Naturally, our conversation drifted to golf. "You know that links course up in Nova Scotia?" Ken asked. "What do you say you and I go up there after it opens?" I don't even need to tell you my answer (yes, there was man-hugging involved). Cabot Trail, here we come!
a) only grouped courses on a 10-point scale and b) was published over 13 years ago, thus missing all of the great courses built during this new golden age of architecture. Where modern gems would score on the Doak Scale is a subject of much speculation and debate on the site.
