The National Post’s golf supplement came out yesterday — and it was written and edited by me, as it has been for the past several years. Never a big supplement, this year’s contained three stories.
The first is on Cabot Links, though the July 1 opening has already been pushed back a few weeks due to the lack of growth at the course with weather across Canada being cooler than expected. That doesn’t really change the story at all:
The World -or at least that part interested in golf -is watching.
In a North American market where more golf courses are closing than opening, all eyes are on Inverness, N.S., an unassuming town in Cape Breton that has struggled for decades since its coal mines closed. This summer it will witness the opening of Cabot Links, already heralded by the golf intelligentsia as the best course to launch in Canada in years. A seaside links akin to what one would find in Scotland or Ireland, Cabot Links also has Mike Keiser in the mix, the man behind Bandon Dunes, arguably the most highly-rated golf resort in the world. Needless to say, there’s a lot of scrutiny and a lot to live up to when it opens for 10-hole “preview rounds” on Canada Day.
“I don’t think we’ve oversold it,” says Ben Cowan-Dewar, Cabot Links’ managing director who initially conceived the project in 2004. “I think what people are excited about is links golf on the eastern seaboard. That’s what people are paying attention to.”
There’s also a story on Brantford’s David Hearn found here, and a piece on my travels in North-West Ireland.
