Top Courses Played 2019

It what is becoming an annual tradition, I recap some of my favorite courses played during the year. Come along with me, won't you on this look back on 2019!

5. Seascape

When one thinks of NorCal golf, the mind is quickly drawn to courses like Pasatiempo but it would be foolish to sleep on a course like Seascape. The back 9 is outrageously good with interesting tee shots undulating fairways and fascinating greens. I am all about this course and can't wait to play it again!

https://www.re-gripped.com/2019/08/seascape-back-9-review.html

4. Cabot Links

I love watching any golf tournament played on links golf courses. The sea, the wind, the fescue, give it to me all the time. The irony is I rarely play any links courses living in SoCal. So when I had an opportunity to play at Cabot this year, imagine my surprise that the Links course, well, was a links! I got my fill of wind and sea and you just feel so connected to the land playing this course.

https://www.re-gripped.com/2019/06/cabot-links-review.html

3. Pasatiempo

The back 9 of Pasatiempo is one of the most intriguing 9s I have ever played. Sure all 18 holes have world class greens and bunkers but the back 9s routing I could play in 100 different ways and I WANT to play it 100 different ways. The 10th and 16th hole might be two of my favorite all time holes and I can't wait to get back there.

https://www.re-gripped.com/2019/09/pasatiempo-reviewed.html

2. The Home Course

Sometimes there are courses that just speak to your soul. THC is one of those. If I lived in the Seattle/Tacoma area I would play here all the time and twice on Sundays. The routing on the front 9 is fantastic, the shots on the back side make you think and the course is in primo shape. Overall, one of my favorite courses in 2019 and just in general.

https://www.re-gripped.com/2019/12/the-home-course.html

1. Cabot Cliffs

The Cliffs course simply smacks you in the face with routing, views and audacious golf design. It is over the top in the best way possible and I am here for it. Cabot (like its sister resort in Bandon) is a trek for most golfers but I highly recommend it just for this course alone. Truly worthy of being in the World Top 100.

http://www.coorecrenshawquest.com/2019/07/cabot-cliffs.html

Airlane Golf Club Review

There are tons of good golf courses in Nova Scotia. Some public, some private but all ones I want to play some day. If you are going on a golf trip to Cabot and fly into Halifax you may be tempted to play some of these other tracks but you may not have the time to do so.

Enter Airlane Golf Club, a passion project of two friends in the 1960s and makes for a great warmup to your Cabot adventure. Located about 10 minutes on the East side of the Halifax airport, Airlane has 9 holes with some great doglegs but is not too taxing on you as prepare for the other courses in the province.

One of my favourite (Canadian spelling) holes has to be this par that is an uphill dogleg right that leads to this awesome green framed by Canadian pine trees.

The course doesn't have a lot of water but where there is H2O it makes for some challenging decisions. The course has a lot of width so you can swing it out wide to the left, like I have done here or challenge the water with a shorter approach to the green to the right. Either way this is a fun hole.

There are plenty of straight ahead holes as well but with the greens being as large as they are, there are multiple pin positions that are possible.

I am not trying to build up this course more than it is, it is an unevenly mowed, parkland-style golf track with not the best POP on a Saturday afternoon but it is affordable and was clearly grown from the passion of two guys and their families which I totally dig.

You are already going to spending an arm and a leg playing at Cabot, why not get some golf kicks for appreciably less at Airlane?

For more information on Airlane check out this link: https://www.airlanegolfclub.com/

Cabot Resort Review

Let's face it, getting to Inverness Nova Scotia takes some effort. The closest major airport is Halifax which still puts you at a 3-plus-hour hour drive to Cabot Links (you could fly into Sydney which puts you 2 hours out but from what I hear Halifax is the better option). So if you are coming from anywhere other than Boston, you are going to have expend time and effort getting there.

Once you get there though...whoa doggy is it worth it! I have not stayed at Pinehurst or Streamsong but having stayed at Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley, I can confidently say that Cabot is the best golf resort I have stayed at so far!

The people there are very friendly and helpful. Big shoutout to Tyler and Jeremy in the golf department and all the friendly staff I met along the way. They bent over backwards to accommodate my group (as they would for any guest) and that type of service goes a long way.

Also, perhaps the best caddie I ever came across was Stephen at the resort. The guy is amiable and even though he wasn't my caddy, I considered the guy one of the gang and highly recommend him to anyone looking to head to Cabot.

First let's talk about the rooms.

The Golf Villas are definitely the best I ever stayed in. They combine the elegance of Sand Valley with a very Scandinavian feng shui with some inspired design choices like a great kitchen, fantastic porch and killer individual bathrooms. The villas where I stayed could easily accommodate a guys group, a couples trip or just the single golfer. All the lodging is currently laid out at the Links course but that is changing with major construction happening near the Cliffs course to really put in a ton more infrastructure in the next 2 years.

Next, let's talk about food. The Links has 2 restaurants (an upstairs, sightly more formal dining area and the downstairs pub area) and also owns the Cabot Public House where you can get some similar food and some different dishes as well.

All the food is excellent, from the lobster rolls,

to the seafood chowder

to the poutine.

Almost all of the beers they serve are local to Cape Breton-Nova Scotia and I tried most of them, particularly liking the beer made specifically for the resort, the Cabot Ale made by Garrison.

If you are traveling to Nova Scotia, get yourself some seafood and local spirits!

The Cliffs course is still in its infancy regarding amenities. There are two yurts which act as gift shop and small cafeteria (with new permanent buildings opening this summer) but the reality is you are going to be spending most of your time back at the main lodge at Links.

My major overall impression is that Cabot is a low-key Bandon (in the best possible way). The rooms were booked at Cabot but you never felt overwhelmed by the amount of guests crowding the fairways or the eating places. It wasn't nearly as "bro-y" as Bandon can sometimes get (I saw women, old people, every different type of category at Cabot which was great). Everything felt much more laid back and less resort-y. While the resort lacks some infrastructure in a few areas (especially over on the Cliffs side, where construction is ongoing as they build a short course and full, permanent clubhouse facilities) Cabot it is already one of my favorite places to stay on the planet - and I imagine it will be even more so once Phase II of the building takes place.

Staying at Cabot is WORTH the energy to get there. The resort, people and food are all top notch and you couldn't ask for anything more then what Cabot gives you!

For more information on the Cabot resort, check out this link: https://www.cabotlinks.com/resort/

Cabot Cliffs

Cabot Cliffs is jaw-droppingly beautiful. If you want to check out my full report, be sure to click the link to my sister site!

https://www.coorecrenshawquest.com/2019/07/cabot-cliffs.html

Cabot Links Review

There are plenty of faux links courses in the US. If there is a links-style courses in Las Vegas you know they are everywhere. Heck the best links-style course in the US is often tabbed as Sand Hills in Nebraska (and I am not one to argue!). Still, when one travels to Nova Scotia, Canada to play the Cabot courses - and especially the Links, a "true" links course - you really see what you have been missing when playing the faux links courses.

The course just feels connected to the sea in a way these other courses can only approximate. The bunkers feel carved out of the dunes. The cape hole on the sixth hole actually go around an actual cape-cove!

I played Cabot Links in 20mph winds in the morning and utterly calm conditions in the afternoon, making it two completely different courses (as all good links courses will do). In short, I felt I was playing in Scotland, yet here I was in North America - truly a transcendent experience.

The Links (like its sister, Cabot Cliffs) starts off with a gentle handshake of a par 5.

After a longish par 3 second with a crazy swale in the middle

the fun really begins on the short par-4 third hole with crazy swamp danger off to the right.

The 4th hole is my personal nemesis. Playing uphill this hole is just hard, triply hard in that aforementioned wind. In either condition I was struggling to get up there but once you gain the high ground you have one of the most beautiful views on the course.

Holes 5 and 6 are fantastic playing along the cove with lobster boats (or at least I thought they were lobster boats - I was so obsessed by lobster on this trip that I turned everything into lobster).

The 8th hole is just a brute. A long forced carry over marshland, then an uphill shot to a double green making this par 5 a real tester.

The course has a lot more teeth than a typical resort course (more on that in a bit) and it shows it in full with the 8th hole.

The fun picks up again on the 10th hole, a fantastic short par 4 with a blind tee shot over a hill to a downhill green. I loved every bit of this hole, it is quintessential links golf and so much fun to play!

The course has a long stretch of holes coming up with super long par 5s and 4s which you think are tough until you get to the par 3, 14th hole which will test your nerve like no other at only 90 yards straight downhill.

This hole was so devious that when I played it, only one person hit the green of a foursome. So fun, so pretty, so ridiculous (in a good way)!

The last stretch was very reminiscent of the last stretch at Bandon Dunes. Play along the water for 16, start to turn in-land for 17 and then 18 is playing back to town/the resort with the folks eating at Cabot's restaurants getting a full view of your approach shots into 18.  Of the three holes, 16 along the coast is the favorite due to the eye candy but I added bonuses points for beach access right by the 16th green (if you have time to dip down to the Atlantic, do it! ).

Overall, Cabot Links is a great course. I love that you don't have to fly all the way to Scotland to play a Scottish course - and the sea views are amazing. I wish the routing of a few holes was softened a bit because the course has too much of an edge for the typical resort golfer, and it would be great to get the greens running slightly faster (they were still working to overcome some tough agronomic issues coming out of a tough winter) but those are minor quibbles to an overall fantastic experience at Cabot.

For more information on the Links, check out this, well, link!: https://www.cabotlinks.com/golf/cabot-links/

Getting Ready For Cabot

I can't believe it but I am only a few weeks of way before traveling to Inverness Nova Scotia and playing perhaps the most picturesque golf courses in all of Canada. I am beyond stoked!

This is my first time playing in Nova Scotia, heck my first time playing in Canada!, so I have been researching like a fiend about it and thought I would bring the fruits of my mania to you, dear reader.

Getting There:

I am taking Air Canada into Halifax and then trundling my way up to a town near Inverness. I bought my plane tickets ages ago and think I have left myself enough room to clear customs on both ends but always something to remember traveling to/from the US. Canada is very similar to the US in many ways but you still have to clear customs.

I am also GREATLY looking forward to trip to Inverness.  I am renting a car (figure easier than arranging car service of some sort plus gives me flexibility to sightsee) and am planning on playing a little golf along the way and also stopping into a few towns, especially Antigonish with dinner at The Townhouse. One of the things I like best about traveling to play golf is being able to stop in and see new places along the way and I am greatly looking forward to seeing what is out and about off of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Weather:

Originally I am from Upstate New York so I have an intimate familiarity with changing weather and the concept of "layering". During June Inverness averages a high of 68 and a chilly low of 47 (all Fahrenheit) with 9 days of rain. So layer I will.

Long range forecasts are currently predicting a pocket of sun over the few days I am there so much like my trip to Bandon (which was basically subtropical like and sandwiched in-between two storm systems) I might get real lucky on this. Still I am layering and also bringing my Bandon knit cap just in case.

Food:

Lobster, I want all of the lobsters. Nova Scotia is considered one of the best seafood places and I look forward to eating everything the resort has to offer. One places in particular that I am look forward to is the Cabot Bar which is right next to the 18th green (always a sucker for places I can sit and drink right next to golf).

https://www.cabotlinks.com/resort/dining/

On the menu that I want to try is of course, you guessed it, the Lobster roll and that blueberry cobbler sounds fantastic. Plus I am a sucker for "can only get it here" drinks so order me up a Cabot Ale and a Patio Weather!

I also definitely want to go to the Public House. This place really reminds me of my time living in Ireland and I definitely want to check it out.

https://www.cabotlinks.com/resort/dining/the-cabot-public-house/

Golf:

With two golf courses to play (although a new short course has been announced!) I am planning on splitting my time evenly between Cliffs and Links. My main goal is just to get there, chill out and playing some great golf with some stunning visual eye candy. That is ultimately the goal of any golf trip. Sure you want to play unique and challenging courses but it is for the WHOLE experience, traveling on the roads, checking out the local pubs, not checking your email for a few days.

I think Cabot can offer me that and more and I can't wait.

For more info on Cabot check out the link: https://www.cabotlinks.com/

Vancouver Island Golf

Canada often gets overlooked as a golfing destination but if you do, you do so at your own peril. There are tremendous Top 100 courses in Canada but beyond the rankings there are numerous golf courses that seem to offer fun challenges to golfers in fantastic natural settings. Plus Canada has my three favorite things moose, maple syrup and hockey so really it is the complete package.

Over the last few years I have become enamored with one area of Canada in particular, Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria. Vancouver Island is surprisingly temperate weather-wise, meaning when the mainland is getting socked in by months of snow, you can still golf there and the golf courses look fantastic. Also, Alaska Airlines flies 4 flights a day into Victoria so it is easy to get to whether you are on the West Coast or the East Coast.

The Island has also put together a Golf Trail and multiple golf packages which takes you up and down the coast or situates you in one area but no matter where you are, you have tremendous golf offerings to choose from. One day I hope to get up there and see it all for myself and then I can tell you all about my Canadian adventures! For the time being, here are a few courses I have been doing deep dives on:

Bear Mountain (Mountain): Jack Nicklaus is a prolific course designer but I dare say he hasn't crafted too many courses prettier than Bear Mountain. Somehow Jack and crew managed to wedge this course on the side of a mountain providing amazing views of the surrounding island. The PGA Champions Tour knows a good thing when it sees it and has an annual tour stop here. The resort associated with the golf course is top notch and the Golf Trail offers stay and play packages so you can live the good life with a good course.
https://bearmountain.ca/recreation/golf/mountain-course/

Highland Pacific Golf Course: Victoria is a beautiful looking town and is probably where I will be spending most of my time when not golfing on the island. Just outside of town is HPGC which was a course that was a real family affair. Herb Plasterer wanted to build a public golf course and started down the path but died. His wife Rose and his family carried on and the course came into being and looks absolutely stunning. I love courses molded by iconoclastic designers like Pine Valley and Pebble Beach and this course is much cheaper and much more accessible than those ones and I can't wait to see what Herb and Rose got up to.
http://www.highlandpacificgolf.com/golf-course-information/

Arbutus Ridge: Golf courses live in their environment, that is just part of the deal. Arbutus is a beautiful looking golf course that is surrounded by 9 wineries and not only that, it has a certificate in environmental planning. This land is gorgeous and the golf course only enhances the beauty of the terrain. WestJet! Magazine named this course one of the best values in Canada and I look forward to seeing why.
http://www.golfbc.com/courses/arbutus_ridge

Victoria Golf Club: A private course on VI, and not on the official golf trail, VGC warrants special mention because of my obsession about it. The course was founded in 1893 (second oldest in North America!) is often ranked in the uppermost reaches of Canada courses and if I could be a member of any course in Canada, this would be the one. Numerous holes by the ocean and also fantastic parkland holes, this course seems to have it all. The clubhouse is a historic landmark but from what I understand about it, the club has a great, laid-back vibe. It would be a honour (Queen's spelling) just to play there and definitely on my top 10 "must play" list.
https://www.victoriagolf.com/

So there you go, a deep dive into one of the unheralded golfing regions in the world, Vancouver Island. Have you played any of the courses there and/or have done the golf trail? Let me know in the comments and if there are any I need to play tell me!

For more information on golf on Vancouver Island, be sure to check out the following link: http://golfvancouverisland.ca/

Images are from Golf Vancouver Island and are used for news and commentary purposes only.