Good news: Since Ben and I have a financial interest in Cabot, you will mercifully see less than a handful of posts per year from us about it. Obviously, this is one of them and another will occur early most Mays about a friendly gathering there around July 4th. Beyond that, it is difficult to comment on something in which you have a stake and not appear self-serving. We hope to avoid that.
Having said that, Mike Keiser agreeing to partner with GolfClubAtlas Development (President: Ben Cowan-Dewar) in March 2007 for the purpose of building Cabot Links was one of the happiest days in my life. Ben was off to the races, Rod Whitman got his best canvas with which to work and the town of Inverness on Cape Breton Island was finally going to get the golf course that it had sought for nearly four decades. Indeed, how the town and resort with its hotel and clubhouse just 100 yards off Main Street are linked together is one of the great storylines of the project.
And yet ... without the popularity of GolfClubAtlas.com that is DRIVEN BY ALL OF YOU, who knows what might have happened? Would I (living in Sydney) have ever met Ben (living in Toronto)? Would I have met that scoundrel Rick Holland who introduced to me to Mike Keiser at his Glen Club? Would Rick have ever visited Cape Breton Island and subsequently passed on such kind words to Mike? If not, Mike likely never goes to Nova Scotia.
In addition, nonexistent would have been the golfing adventures with Ben to the Dominican Republic, Argentina, South Africa, Banff/Jasper and most importantly one to Cape Breton Highlands. It was at that last gathering where the long-time golf professional Joe Robinson confirmed to Ben something he had heard elsewhere: the town of Inverness on the west coast of the island remained keen on building a golf course in its open space along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Ben’s stellar work set the stage but then the unforeseen happened: a deep recession enveloped North America. With a partner other than Keiser, Cabot stalls. Building a walking only course in a remote setting sounds great but try raising money for it after economic storm clouds have gathered. No doubt, the fruition of the project hinged around Mike’s involvement. That assured, Ben moved his family on site and Rod followed shortly thereafter. Essentially, GolfClubAtlas.com (i.e. ALL OF YOU) created threads that enabled the right people getting involved to see a project of this nature through.
Like the game of golf, Cabot is walking only as demonstrated on opening day by Ben and Jack Cowan-Dewar. That’s Ben on the left and the brains are on the right. 
Despite the uncertain times, Mike, Ben and Rod zoomed in on the task at hand. Many others contributed along the way and Ben thanked them in his fabulous letter that he posted opening day June 29th, 2012.
One thing you have to ask yourself: Why do Keiser’s projects habitually turn out so well? Plenty of people have the means to buy parcels along large bodies of water so it’s a lot more than just having the financial wherewithal to pursue ‘dream golf.’ Hand on heart, the course turned out better than I imagined it would based on my first visit in July 2006. I had high expectations but the end result exceeds all of them. A lot of that has to do with Mike and his numerous visits. Always pushing for something of interest, every shot comes under Mike’s microscope and any unwanted distractions (power lines, roads, etc.) become hidden. Mike strives for a clean, uncluttered environment in which to recreate and enjoy the game. Anything less is unsatisfactory.
When the fourth green didn’t quite capture anyone’s fancy, Mike came up with the idea of making it into a shared green with the thirteenth. The 27,600 sq. ft. Double Green makes both holes better because 1) it was a great idea and 2) Mike had the right guy in Rod Whitman to translate the concept into the dirt. When you see the Double Green’s contours in person, you appreciate the fun and challenge, features that for me hallmark what separates Keiser’s endeavors from everyone else. His courses don’t kill you nearly as much as they inspire you. At just over 6,800 yards, Cabot is not about length and with 60 acres of short grass (i.e. ~50% more short grass than you’ll find at most courses), you will be able to get a clean strike on the ball. Watching Rod go around the course, inventing shots, and seeing his low chasers climb a bank before breaking toward the hole is a blast. The gobs and gobs of room to maneuver freely is a hallmark of the design as are the shrewdly angled greens which help create playing angles galore. Unless you are a total hack or you are playing from the wrong tees, there are only two forced carries of any consequence (4th and 13th tees) and they both happen to be among my favorite drives on the course. Like all great links, Cabot is very much about the interaction of the ball along the fescue playing surfaces. It all adds up to FUN and why other owners fail to understand that fun golf equals repeat play is beyond me.
After the initial walk around, it was suggested by someone in the group that a Whistling Straits type approach with massive land moving might work best on the site. That’s not how Mike looks at golf (why would you possibly elect to proceed with a site if it needed so much work?) and the idea was discarded. Most importantly, Mike’s innate sense as to what golfer’s want dovetailed perfectly with Rod’s design concepts and building skills.
As the Great Whit is an architect incapable of saying anything nice about his own work it becomes a requisite delight to do it for him. While cast from the same mold as other favorite architects of the naturalist school, Rod came up with something remarkably fresh at Cabot. A short two shotter with no bunkers and a super wide fairway may not sound like a winning combination until you play the 8th at Cabot. His inverted L shaped green at the 15th is another strategic marvel as it gives a straight hole interesting playing angles.
Though discussing routings is usually nebulous, it is less so here because we have two others with which to compare Rod’s. Both Graham Cooke and Jack Nicklaus had done routings for ventures that never got off the ground. Contrasting their conceptual plans with what is Cabot Links is fascinating. Many of their holes go in the opposite direction within the same playing corridors that Whitman ultimately selected. Though I am 100% biased, if you consider how well 15 and 16 turned out at Cabot, it is both interesting AND disconcerting to appreciate what a radically different course would have emerged if the work had been done by others. The approach to the 16th is among my five or seven favorite shots in all of golf and I say that having hit it ~40 times over the past several years. Whit's nuanced massaging of the landforms down that fairway and around the green is superlative, biased or not!
A bitter golfer (aka Bill Morrissett) desperately tries to retain a morsel of dignity by getting up and down at the Cape hole in a match against yours truly. Despite his ungentlemanly conduct of making me putt not once but twice (!) from three feet (or was that four feet? 
), we finished our eighteen hole grudge match in two hours, forty-five with the match halved, which surely speaks well of the ‘walkablity’ of Whit’s design. Elements of Westward Ho! (one of my five favorite links in the world) are laced throughout Cabot: a par four with a death or glory carry over sleepered bunkers, rumpled fescue playing surfaces, reeds, a flat two hole stretch that demarcates the stance adjustments required elsewhere, a course that starts and finishes under clubhouse gazes, a wide variety of green complexes, central hazards, a short par three capable of wreaking havoc, wind from every direction, and the list goes on. Ultimately, good golf is all about variety and that is Cabot’s ultimate calling card. Holes along the ocean, holes near the town, holes around a working harbor, holes skirting past wetlands – it’s all there.
Golf in New Scotland that’s authentic to the game’s roots in Old Scotland. Cabot’s clubhouse and lodge are in the distance.By the way, Green Keeper Mike Rossi took the first and last photographs above. Under the Holes to Note section, we use some from him, Ben and pro David Scaletti, whose work is featured under our Art & Architecture section. I thought GolfClubAtlas.com had done well in some of our recent profiles but looks like I will be heading to photography classes over the winter.
The name GolfClubAtlas.com is near and dear to my heart and it’s a name that I zealously protect. There is no better person to be president of GolfClubAtlas Developments than Ben. His trips to every region in the world have taught him what works – and what doesn’t – at golf resorts. My interior designer girlfriend thought he nailed it with the clean modern lines in the hotel rooms and the clubhouse menu is second to none. As a result Cabot has quickly come on the radar as a couples retreat and therefore, a spa is being added to the offering this winter. Throw in the cups that go ting à la Japan when the ball is holed and you get a sense of the knowledge derived from Ben’s golf travel business and his own far flung trips. I will
never be surprised by anything that Ben accomplishes in life but having said that, I am continually blown away every time I head to Cabot. My girlfriend and I were ‘stranded’ there a few extra days because of Sandy and I said specifically to her one afternoon, “Let’s go find things to criticize.” We came back from our stroll around the course with nothing but smiles. Little things like the signage and curved walking paths, low and out of view from the tees are the markings of a more mature course. The fescue greens progressed well through the playing season and were running just over 8 on the stimp 38 days ago.
Clearing for Cabot Cliffs has commenced and hopes are high for what Coore & Crenshaw will create on a site that mixes dunes and jagged cliffs. Though Links and Cliffs are separated by only a two mile walk up the beach, the two parcels of land are remarkably different from one another. While Coore & Crenshaw are capable of good work
, will they be able to match the variety of the Links where Rod, Mike and Ben slowly extracted the very best from the property it occupies? I don’t know and watching the Cliff holes unfold next year will be very interesting. However, hopefully it won’t take the spotlight away from what has been accomplished already at Cabot. This is Rod’s master work and it deserves to be discussed on its own merits as opposed to being merely compared against someone else’s work on a different site.
A lot was at stake given that 2,600 yards of ocean frontage is rarely available for golf on the eastern seaboard of North America. Have a read and see if you don’t agree that Mike, Rod and Ben have become great stewards of the land and that the town of Inverness finally has the course that it deserves.
Thank you for helping to make it possible. Cheers,