On Monday, May 30th, I had the opportunity to visit the much-discussed Cabot Links in Inverness, Nova Scotia, for the first time and meet with the man who is overseeing the development, GCA’s own Ben Cowan-Dewar. Ben and I had corresponded by email several times over the past few years and had tried to meet up but those plans were always frustrated until now. It was absolutely worth the wait.
I should offer some background on why I was there. Back about 2001, I was working in the Nova Scotia government’s Department of Tourism. A request landed on my desk one day to look into a proposed golf development in Inverness. The site was a seaside property that in its past life had been an open-pit coal mine until the operators abandoned it in the 1950s. The site needed remediation, and there was a request for the Province to help support that effort.
At the time there had already been one aborted attempt to develop the site as a golf course. The original plans talked of a possible Nicklaus design, but for reasons that were not clear, that never went very far. At the time it landed on my desk there had apparently been talk about having Dr. Michael Hurdzan design a golf course on the site. I can only assume that the request was routed to me because my superiors in the department knew I was a golf nut.
I didn’t know much about Hurdzan and my attempts to research his work somehow led me to Lorne Rubenstein, the golf correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail. I didn’t know Lorne either, but had always admired his work and thought he might be able to offer me some background on architecture and course development, so I took a flyer and sent him an email introducing myself and asking him some basic questions.
Much to my amazement, Lorne called me back in short order and we had a great conversation. He seemed aware of the site and offered me some valuable guidance over what was probably a 30-minute conversation from Florida, where he was at the time. As an interesting side conversation, he told me about the book he was writing about having spent a good part of the last year in Dornoch, and about how the courses in Scotland express the fundamental essence of the game so well. He made some recommendations about the possible direction the project could take, but more importantly was incredibly generous with his time and advice in helping me understand some of the potential for the site. I wrote my memo containing my conclusions, sent it to the Deputy Minister, and never heard anything further.
A year later I had moved on from Tourism and found myself at the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, the provincial liquor retailer, where I was helping it transform itself into a Crown corporation. Not long after arriving there I read that the Province of Nova Scotia was going to assist in remediating the site and preparing it for future development. This was tremendously important news for the town. Cape Breton is the island at the northern end of Nova Scotia and is blessed with tremendous natural beauty. The Cape Breton economy was based for decades on coal mining and later on, steel-making. Both of those began to suffer in the 1960s and 70s, with both the federal and provincial governments taking major ownership stakes in keeping those industries operating. The financial losses were huge and inevitably, those operations were gradually being downsized and phased out.
I remember my first business trip to Cape Breton in the early 80’s, driving along the highway towards Sydney, the island’s only city, and thinking about their economic problems. Unemployment was high, people were losing jobs every day, and times were tough, as they seemingly had always been. But I marveled at the natural beauty I saw around every corner during my drive up from Halifax, seeing it for the first time as an adult. I had the thought – as had many others, no doubt – that the economic future of Cape Breton somehow hinged upon getting away from traditional industry and making all that natural beauty available to the world. As to how to do that, I had no idea.
Inverness is situated on the western coastline of Cape Breton but had suffered greatly following the shutdown of its coal operation. It was a company town, and the company was gone. You can well imagine the results of that. It could best be described as “gritty”, still trying to transition itself from an industrial economy to something else, with limited success to that point. But it had this one incredible asset hidden away behind the less-than-charming collection of wood-frame buildings lining the west side of its main street, Central Avenue – a beachy coastline that spread as far as the eye could see in either direction. The mine site and some unremarkable fish processing industrial buildings near the water made it somewhat less than beautiful, but the potential was simply unlimited. It just needed someone to send it to finishing school and give it a makeover.
When I heard Ben announce the Cabot Links project on GCA I was overjoyed, but must admit some initial skepticism. I didn’t know much about building golf courses, but I knew that building one in Inverness that took advantage of that site would be a huge challenge and would not be inexpensive, as it would have to be pretty much self-contained for most amenities in addition to golf. There weren’t many 5-star restaurants in the area, and while there were a number of relatively small lodging operations that offered an excellent experience, this seemed like something on a bigger scale than they could handle. But as time went on, and Ben persevered, the prospects began to brighten. Mike Keiser of Bandon Dunes fame became involved as a backer, and that bought instant credibility. Rod Whitman signed on as architect, which seemed an inspired choice. Things were indeed looking up.
Meanwhile, I was working away at the NSLC, dealing with matters of board governance, policy, and legislation. But I did have a hobby that kept things from getting too dry – I loved single-malt scotch, and I would cajole and coax the product managers to bring in some of the products I thought we needed to carry. Sometimes I was successful, and for a time the NSLC had one of the better single-malt selections in Canada. But as is typical of the ebb and flow of retail, new items came along that were deemed more worthy of the limited shelf space available, and our scotch selection was pretty pedestrian in recent times. But we had recently started to do some work to revive the category and I was involved in that.
I had contacted Ben a few months earlier and we had talked about what I could do to help make some of the better scotches available in our little store in Inverness, as Ben and some of the other people involved in the development of the course enjoyed a wee dram from time to time as a refreshment after a hard day of work on the course. I was glad to do what I could, and that led to an invitation from Ben to come and see Cabot Links as it sits today, one month before its limited 10-hole opening on July 1st. I was traveling to Cape Breton on business and this would make for an interesting diversion along the way there.
Before I get to the course, I should talk a bit about getting there. Coming from Halifax, it isn’t all that onerous of a drive, taking a bit over 3 hours. For more than the first half of it you are on a modern multilane divided highway with a 110km/hr speed limit. Once you pass New Glasgow, it transforms into a stretch of the original Trans-Canada Highway from the 1960s and 70s, which means mostly limited-access 2-lane, with passing lanes as needed and speed limits that are generally between 90 and 100 km/hr. After about 40 minutes on that stretch of road, you cross the Canso Causeway and are in Cape Breton.
By now the rain that was chasing me to Cape Breton had ended, and the skies cleared to reveal a lovely late-spring day, sunny and mild, with only a gentle breeze. Route 19, a beautifully scenic 2-lane country road with a speed limit of 80 km/hr between towns, takes you to Inverness. All in all it is an easy and enjoyable drive, passing through rolling hills with pastures holding the occasional horse or herd of cattle, going through charming little communities like Mabou and Judique, and not far from Inverness, seeing the award-winning Glenora whisky distillery perched at the base of a steep hill upon which guest lodges are perched. People come here for the scenery alone. But now there is another reason.
Arriving in Inverness, at first one could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps they were not in the right place. Like many old mining towns that have seen better days, initial impressions are not totally attractive to the eye. Development along Central Avenue seemed largely haphazard, and a series of company-built duplexes from early in the last century in various states of repair makes for an interesting but not necessarily attractive artifact of the past. But you need to quite literally look past the buildings on the west side of the road, for beyond that is the magnificent piece of property that the Links now sits upon – gently rolling dunes and hollows stretching all the way to a beach that seems to never end. The view from the road is impressive. But it pales against what you experience once you venture onto the property itself.
Ben greeted me in his office and immediately suggested that he take me onto the course for a quick tour. In no time at all we were standing next to a series of fishing piers which were still being used for that purpose, and Ben was describing the holes at this end of the property that were still being constructed – the gravel base of a greensite here, a mountain of red soil that would be smoothed into a tee box there. It’s difficult for someone like me who’s not in the business to see the potential of a site where much construction and finishing is needed, but that wasn’t a problem when we got back in Ben’s SUV and he took me to a part of the property near the center of the course where most of the work has finished.
We walked to a tee box that was finished as Ben pointed to the green perched on the edge of the beach. Although it lacked the high cliffs of Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, the vista reminded me of the same type of “infinity green” design that one faces there in trying to determine the distance of an approach shot without any perspective to help the eye judge the shot. I must have been grinning like an idiot as I looked at the target – Ben tells me it’s about 125 yards – and imagined the challenges of trying to pull the right club and hit the right shot, with nothing else but sky and sea in sight. From there, we ascended a dune to one of the highest points on the property and that was where it just all hit me. As you look to the left, you see miles of beach, sparkling blue ocean, and at the end of it all, far in the distance, a cliffside dropping down into the sea. Looking to the right, you just see more of the same, nothing but sheer natural beauty. For someone growing up near the ocean like I did, it just felt like home. For someone who doesn’t have that background, I can only imagine what it must feel like. Heaven, perhaps.
We then traveled to another part of the course and walked out onto a huge double green that Ben tells me is 110 yards wide. Looking back down the fairway, Ben pointed out the options for playing the hole and how Rod has planned its strategy – challenge the ocean side and if successful, be rewarded with an easier shot into the rolling crescent-shaped green, or take the inland side of the fairway and have to play a much more challenging approach shot. Standing on the green, I thought that regardless of how I got there, the swales and slopes would be more than challenge enough for a putter like me.
From there we visited the clubhouse, still under construction, but that didn’t stop Ben from describing the location of the pro shop, and perhaps in deference to the reason for my visit, pointing out where the bar would be situated. Upstairs is where the dining room is found, commanding a spectacular view of the property, and Ben also showed me where the patio deck would be located. I can’t think of a better place to sit and relax on a nice day. As of right now this is still very much a work in progress and I suspect that temporary arrangements will be in place when the course opens for limited play on Canada Day.
Trying to describe all the holes would be a waste of time. I’m just not that good a writer to be able to compete with the pictures you’ve seen on the Cabot website and elsewhere. I only wish I had remembered to bring my camera. But I’m sure that after July 1st there will be plenty of pictures to bring the images of the course to everyone, and all I can say for now is that I don’t think anyone will be disappointed. It is a spectacular achievement, looking almost totally natural, one that seems to allow one to play golf the way it was meant to be played by the game’s forefathers. Nova Scotia – translated as New Scotland from the Latin name – now has both a whisky and a golf course that are reminiscent of its ancestral home.
What I do need to describe is how much the development of Cabot Links is sure to alter this part of the world. Aside from a spectacular golf course, the investments being made, both now and in the years to come, are certain to have a huge impact on this community, and I’m convinced all of it will be for the better. I cannot emphasize enough how badly the area has needed a shot in the arm like this. Inverness is on the verge of being transformed over the next decade, and what one will see come July 1st is quite literally just the first of many steps. I can’t wait to come back, hopefully many times over the next few years, and see that happen.
Thanks, Ben, and good luck.