Cabot Cliffs officially opens this week

[Wayne_Kozun]

This Wednesday ( June 8 ) marks the official opening of Cabot Cliffs, which is already ranked #19 in the world by Golf Digest.  I was out there last week and played three rounds in varying weather, including last Saturday afternoon which saw cold, light rain and strong winds.  The course is exhilarating to play and we had a wonderful time.  The only real complaint is that the greens were very slow, but that will improve shortly, if it hasn't already.  The new tee is open on the 5th hole that makes this hole more of a cape with the tee now in the lower left corner of the diagram below.  The tee used last year was more in the bottom right.  The tee shot calls for a draw over the left hand fairway bunker but there isn't a lot of room in the fairway if you go right as there is a severe fall off that will result in a lost ball near the third tee.  This is a very tricky tee shot and the hole plays way longer than the yardage listed - perhaps those numbers are from the old tees?


The 17th is a very interesting par 3 1/2 that players will either love or hate - but it certainly is a dramatic hole in a beautiful setting.  But it is hard to know where to layup and what club to hit, if you don't take the risk of going for the green.


The 18th is a fantastic hole that had an issue over the winter as there was some erosion of the cliffs that damaged the back right portion of the green complex.  There was heavy machinery there last week shoring up the cliff - hopefully that prevents this from re-occuring.


Cabot Links is playing quite well now as it wintered much better than it did in 2015.  The iconic 14th hole sees a new bunker to the left and in the front left corner of the green.


Hopefully much of the gang gets up to Cape Breton to see the course - of you haven't booked already you may be too late as the lodging at the resort is pretty much sold out for the season.

[Tom_Doak]

The new tee is open on the 5th hole that makes this hole more of a cape with the tee now in the lower left corner of the diagram below.  The tee used last year was more in the bottom right.  The tee shot calls for a draw over the left hand fairway bunker but there isn't a lot of room in the fairway if you go right as there is a severe fall off that will result in a lost ball near the third tee.  This is a very tricky tee shot and the hole plays way longer than the yardage listed - perhaps those numbers are from the old tees?

We could not make sense of the listed length of the 5th hole when we played it last summer, either.  I hit a decent shot to the top of the hill on the right and had a 5-iron left to the green, even though the hole was listed at 330 yards or something like that.  Maybe that's the length straight to the green?


I, too, am interested in seeing the course when the greens are faster.  With greens that fall away so fast in places, a proper green speed will make or break holes like #1 and #9.

[Keith Phillips]

Thinking of a trip north in late-summer - I've never played a course in its first year, but I presume the greens will be running well by then?

[Greg Gilson]

Hi Wayne, I was out there on June 30/31 so we may have passed each other! Here were my jetlag impacted thoughts from a separate thread on the topic:


A friend & I (Aussies) are here right now (we are playing further south for a couple of weeks but "pre-extended into Nova Scotia). Cabot is amazing. We played Links (AM) and were privileged to play Cliffs (PM). There is a tiny bit of construction golf at Cliffs but otherwise the condition is "mint". I have never played a course with basically zero divots & noone else on the track. Its 4 AM local time (jetlag still!) but here are my top of mind thoughts on Cabot in general:[/size]-they are doing things well all around clearly copying the Bandon model (both golf & non golf)-the staff are , in general, great & clearly love their jobs-Links was such a fun course with great variety & plenty of quirk. At lunch, refused to believe Cliffs could be SOOOOO much better (as reputed)-it was-have not played Sandhills or their course in China but I have played BT, FH, OS, LF and really love all 4 of those. Cliffs is superior or is , at least to me-it is a big, beautiful, fun , varied (3 x 3, 3 x 4, 3 x5) course that i would love to play more often-Cliffs #2 is a totally unique hole that i have never seen the like of before. Not often we get to say that-contrary to most players, probably, i thought Cliffs #16 just felt a little forced (tiny bitch)I wish good fortune to those with the balls & the $ to make this happen. Thanks to Andrew & the team for allowing us to play.Go see it[/color]

[Wayne_Kozun]

I don't think 16 is forced - as long as you aim left you should be fine although could have a tricky downhill putt. I think 17 will be much more controversial over the longer term and you will have many more people that don't like that hole.


I agree that #2 at Cliffs is an awesome and very unique hole.  The bump in front of the green looks somewhat like a hairy nose.


#7 is also a great hole requiring a heroic tee shot but the hole is still very interesting after that.


The greens will be faster in the future but, like many links courses, you are unlikely to get into the double digits on the stimp given the risk of high winds.


One thing at Cliffs that I think may make sense is to make what is now played as the 9th hole (a 120 yd par 3) as the 2nd hole as you have to walk the length of this hole currently after #8.


@Greg - We must have just missed as I left Cabot on May 29 around 5pm.  I think you meant 6x3, 6x4 and 6x5 rather than 3x ...   When you say construction golf do you mean the erosion control work on #18 or other places?  At Cliffs it was a treat to play a course of that calibre as, essentially, your own private course with pretty much no one else on it.