As we get ready to open Cabot Links today, I am filled with a wide range of emotions, but mostly gratitude. Cabot went from being a glimmer in my slightly younger eye, to an all-consuming passion that led me to leave my home province, where I had lived all of my life, and relocate to Cape Breton. As Mike Keiser has taken to saying, it is a preposterous story, but I think a lot of the good ones are.
Through it all, from the first trip to the site in December of 2004 with Jeff Mingay, I got married, had children, moved across a country and learned how much harder projects like this are. Fortunately, my wife Allie was patient enough to chase this dream with me. Without her, as anyone who has embarked on a similar path knows, it really would not have been possible. Allie gave up a career in finance and a city that was home to her friends and family and set out with me to this wonderful ocean town she had visited only once before. Beyond Allie and our growing immediate family, I was truly blessed to have the support of my parents and two sisters, none of whom thought Cabot was as insane as it was, or least they were too kind to say so if they did.
In reality, there is no way Cabot Links would be possible without GolfClubAtlas and, therefore, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ran for giving people who shared a love for architecture a place to come and learn. It helped me transition from an 8-year old drawing sketches of my ode to Pete Dye’s linear style to someone who appreciates not only the designers of yesteryear but also the wonderful modern designers who have added so much to the game more recently. GolfClubAtlas is where I first communicated with Tom Doak, met Greg Ramsey (who I would meet and play Barnbougle with one month before seeing Cabot) and made so many wonderful friends. It also introduced me to two key people who would support me in this crazy idea. I will never forget what Adam Clayman and Joe Andriole did to affirm my belief that we could build great links golf in the 21st century and that this dream was truly worth pursuing.
Ran did so much more than just create a platform, he gave the project legitimacy and financial support at a time when I needed both. I remember talking Ran’s ear off on the merits of the project one afternoon at the Casa de Campo bar, forgoing a second round of golf in favour of rum-laced drinks (a wise decision as Adam, Mike and Jonathan returned sunburned and sober). Ran soon did the only natural thing for anyone dreaming of building a golf course, he set a date to come and see the property. I remember that day in August, when we walked around the property; It was sunny and stunningly beautiful and the idea of a golf course seemed so obvious. On the drive back to Halifax, Ran offered his watch (seriously) as a down-payment on an interest in Cabot. For anyone who knows his penchant for Swiss timepieces, I had enough to build the first hole and a partner to make the project a reality.
This surely came as great news to Rod Whitman who, at this point, had seen the property only in the middle of winter but thankfully returned in the beauty of summer and began to share my passion for the project. Rod faced many hardships in the early days of our adventure, such as sharing hotel rooms with me at the Halifax airport (“We are on a budget, Rod.”) to tirelessly listening to my thoughts all that needed to be done. He routed and rerouted as we tried to determine what properties would be procured. Finally he re-routed the course again. We were set, almost.
Rod and I have known each other since September 9th, 2001 when we played golf at Wolf Creek. He arrived in his trademark unassuming fashion, have argued with his business partner/friend and perhaps earliest backer, Ryan Vold, about taking a newer set of rental clubs and bag with a strap versus his outdated set of blades and carrying case (it would be unfair to call it a golf bag). Rod toured my dad and I around Wolf Creek and showed his humble but strikingly intellectual take on golf architecture. At this point, I knew I wanted to build a golf course and had already designed and built a par three as a child that was fine-tuned through my adolescent years. That day, Rod told me the green never quite turned out the way he wanted. I replied by asking if the shaper understood his idea. Rod smiled - perhaps it was more of a smirk - and said, “I was the shaper, I spent hours on that, it just never quite got to where I wanted.” I knew then that I had met my future architect. Our friendship would grow through the years, but was solidified when I volunteered to take Rod on a tour of golf courses in Scotland in 2010 - golf development is tough work after all. Rod had never played in Scotland, so I set up a doozy of a trip. We played Machrihanish the first day we arrived after driving in from Glasgow and Machriahnish Dunes the next morning, followed by an eye-opening afternoon round at Prestwick. From there, we moved on to Loch Lomond, Dornoch, Brora, Castle Stuart, Cruden Bay, and finally St. Andrews. We squeezed in an afternoon round in at the Castle Course (which I had not seen previously) in preparation for our epic battle at the Old Course the next day. What most people do not know about Rod is his competitive nature, which stems from having played collegiate golf and growing up determined to be a great golfer. Thankfully, having learned a thing or two from Ran on how to tip the match in your favour before it starts, I overslept and banged on Rod’s door, until the disoriented Whit answered, still searching for his glasses. “We are off at the Old Course in 20 minutes, get ready!” I started the car and squealed the tires towards the first tee. Although few care to hear matches recounted years later, Rod never tires of reminiscing about his solid drive, decent wedge on the green and four-putt at the first. It is hazy as to who prevailed in many of those Scottish matches but my 3&2 victory is still recounted like it was yesterday (at least by me). We pushed further on to Lundin Links, Berwick and finally Muirfield. The day began with me tying Rod’s tie at the Balmoral in Edinburgh and with him reassuring me this was the second time after his wedding 25 years prior that he would don a tie – auspicious indeed. Thirty-five holes into a wonderful match that had pitted us and our gracious hosts against each other again, Rod asked what hole we were on. When informed it was the 17th, he stared at me in disbelief, wondering how we had skipped so many holes. In this trip, Rod discovered more than just great golf course architecture; he discovered Kummel and the delights of a lunch at Muirfield when you have a driver/tour guide.
Earlier in our development days, Ran and I brought a group to Cabot in the fall of 2006, shortly after playing Highlands Links on a blissful fall day. Rick Holland was among the group and came not only to walk around Cabot, but to a later fundraising evening in Toronto. After Ran and I had gone through a slideshow of the property and talked about the potential, one wise man asked me, “Why haven’t you asked Mike Keiser?” As it turns out, I had in mid-2005. When I first spoke to Mike, he was opening Trails and Barnbougle and was not sure if his string of success with remote golf courses would run out, saying he may have bitten off more than he could chew. I remember this day well, it was big one in my business career and in the evolution of the project. When Mike and I finished talking, I was thanking him for his time and he said, “One last thing – get more property. If you are successful, you will need more land.” With that, I sought out a second piece of property that Bill Coore is returning to in a week’s time for his third visit.
That was it. Rick’s return trip to Chicago caused him to follow up with Mike, which led to Josh Lesnik’s journey to Cape Breton in November of 2006. November is a beautiful time of year in Inverness and Josh and I had a great few days walking the course and driving over to see Highlands Links, spotting moose and eagles, as if on cue, along the way. Josh’s passion for remote golf is well known to those who know him and were around Bandon from the beginning so it was a huge vote of confidence that he returned to Chicago excited about the opportunity.
This led to the penultimate visit by Mike and Co. in March of 2007. Like Rod’s first visit, the day was a dreary one but the potential remained evident and one thing led to another.
Obviously Mike coming on as a partner was a coup to anyone who knows anything about golf. However, it was so much more than that. I have spoken about the bit of jealously I had in my first visit to Bandon, it was hard to believe that someone else could conceive and execute on a vision of golf like that. However, I have come to learn just how brilliant an individual Mike is. Len Levine, who has worked with Mike for more than three decades and has played a huge role at Cabot, told me in his first visit that Mike makes good people who work with him better and great people exceptional. It is Mike’s collaborative approach and modesty that allows a committee to design one of the greatest golf courses (Old Mac) not just in modern history, but ever, without it becoming a circus act. It is this same skill that coaxes great ideas out of the most unlikely sources and creates an atmosphere where they can be shared, celebrated and, most importantly, executed. This also breeds a process where we all leave scratching our heads, wondering whose idea this feature or that bunker really is (with the exception of the double green, click here -
http://youtu.be/7HVlTbb1mxo - to see YouTube Clip on its genesis). All in all, it was a process that was creative, dynamic, stimulating, but mostly just a ton of fun. It is easy to lose perspective on the scope of the project when you wake up next to it every day, but Mike’s frequent visits gave fresh perspective and the course is much better for it.
As many of you who have been involved in building a course know, there are so many people you never get to thank properly but I will try.
Adam Clayman – For offering support to me and the idea when there was not much else.
Joe Andriole – For his support and friendship and for leaving the indelible mark of the short 14th in Rod’s consciousness.
Mike Robin - For supporting and encouraging the wildest ideas and giving the most simple and often best advice.
Dave Axland – For knowing how to build a great golf course, but more importantly for knowing how to lead others to the same goal. You would be hard-pressed to find greater talent in golf course construction - something Kenny Bakst told me many years ago. Dave’s design knowledge and capability will have me on a plane eager to see whatever he does next. When “Construction Dave” was replaced by “Creative Dave” the whole project benefitted and we are so lucky to have him.
Jeff Mingay – For sharing the passion of being involved in something like Cabot in Canada and for the million early ideas that inevitably wove their way into the fabric that is Cabot Links today.
Kyle Franz – For continually coming up with bold new ideas and always thinking ahead to what could possibly make the project even better. Thank you for that and, of course, for the bunkers that others have even called “handsome”.
Mike Rossi – For growing the vision and taking the baton from here.
Mike Nuzzo – For turning Rod’s routing maps into beautiful pictures that accompanied me on the fundraising trail wherever I went. How many architects would be that selfless and that helpful?
Like many things that seem like a foregone conclusion when you near the finish line, Cabot was a good, even a great idea. However, it was not mine first. The town of Inverness and a group of volunteers had advanced the idea of the golf course as an economic stimulus for a town that had lost its main industry in 1953. For decades, they dreamed, talked and marketed this property as New Scotland’s (‘Nova Scotia’ in Latin) answer to the links of the motherland. Recently, I was given a letter from the IDA (the volunteer group that fostered this wild idea) that they had sent to a Scottish newspaper years ago seeking affirmation that they did, in fact, have a links site on their hands. In the final paragraph there was a line that said, “We hope our financing will be in place within the next two or three months.” In hindsight, it was an optimistic timeline, but optimism is what is needed to turn wild ideas into reality and they, like I, had lots of it in reserve. The letter was sent and got a warm response after conferring with the secretary of Royal Dornoch - confirming what George Peper and Malcolm Campbell would state many years later in True Links – links golf was waiting to emerge.
Fifteen years after that letter, we are getting ready to open Cabot Links and as anyone who has been through the process of opening anything knows, the final days are like a sprint at the end of a marathon. The construction team and the operational staff at Cabot Links are all pulling to make this debut to the world and, last week, the New York Times even came to our little corner of the world. We have heard so often from our early visitors that the warmth of the staff and the people of Cape Breton rival the scenery, which is both no small feat and common knowledge to those who know what makes this island so special. With more than 120 employees this year and many more to come when Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw finish Cabot Cliffs, we are off to a running start. Remaining optimistic, I know it is just the beginning.
Last week I fielded a call from a young would-be golf developer who was thinking about building a “great” course on sand and had heard the Cabot story. It was a moment that I am sure Mike Keiser has experienced on a weekly basis since Bandon Dunes’ inception. However, it was a new one for me and I thought back to the day seven years ago I cold-called Mike to pitch remote golf. I finished this week’s call in much the same tone that Mike did with me, by wishing the developer good luck and telling him that I was pulling for him. It was the only natural response given how much hope, encouragement and luck is required to get anywhere near an opening day. Thankfully, I had bountiful amounts of all three from my family, friends and community that saw this dream become reality.
THANK YOU Ran (!) and the GCA community for contributing to this.
Ben