Cabot Courses, Will Leave You Breathless

Play Nova Scotia’s spellbinding Cabot Cliffs.

- Dale Leatherman

I’ve never before said a North American course rivals the great coastal tracks of Scotland, but I’m saying it now about Cabot Cliffs, universally ranked in the world’s top 10 since it opened in 2015. Prior to 2011, only golf purists traveled to Cape Breton Island, off the northern tip of Nova Scotia, to play Highlands Links. Opened in 1941, it’s a Stanley Thompson classic and a joy to play, but back then it was a long trip for one course. That changed in 2011 when the site of an old coal mine on the island’s west coast was reborn as Cabot Links. The Rod Whitman layout is so Scottish you can almost hear echoes of bagpipes as you walk it.