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Links By Darcy Rhyno
A son makes his mother’s dream of playing the perfect course come true in Cape Breton A saturating mist drifts off the Northumberland Strait, rolls over the dunes at Cabot Links and climbs the bluffs at Cabot Cliffs. Dark clouds stalled against the gentle slopes of the Cape Breton highlands threaten rain. In the buffeting winds, fishing boats docked at the wharf in tiny Inverness harbour tug at their moorings. Through the spitting wind at Cabot Links’ first tee, my 75-year-old mother cinches up her windbreaker and declares, “It’s a perfect day for golf.” At Cabot Links, every hole offers an ocean view ©Tourism Nova Scotia
I’ve brought her here as a gift. For many years, she played golf for eight months a year at home and another four months when she wintered in Florida as a snowbird. She’s often dreamed of playing a perfect course, and Cabot Links is where she can finally see that dream come true. Dressed in her new outfit purchased just for this special trip, she looks every bit the experienced golfer. A links course so exposed to ocean elements is no place for bare legs and a thin windbreaker, but nothing is going to stop her from finishing these 18 holes. In fact, today’s weather only makes her more determined. She tees up and belts a ball down the first fairway.
Delicious offerings of land and sea at Panorama Restaurant ©Tourism Nova Scotia
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EXTRAORDI N A RY EXP ER IEN C ES
It’s these rugged Nova Scotia coastal conditions that contribute to the ranking of the twin Cabots among the top 10 or 20 courses in the world. The landscape and climate here are as close as it gets to those of St. Andrews, Scotland,
