Cabot Links
In my write-up of Cabot Cliffs I noted how the resort is the Canadian Bandon. That is really true when comparing Cabot Links to Bandon Dunes. I guarantee you I could include photos here of Bandon Dunes and vice versa and you would never know. I would never know either. Both are a great experience, have that wow factor, have memorable holes, links-like feel, etc. So why do I rank Bandon considerably higher? Honestly it is really close and I guess it was because Bandon was first. Well, I guess Whistling Straits was first for a remote golf resort with links-like courses. Well I really guess St. Andrews was first but that’s a whole different story.
Because Cabot Links was designed after Bandon Dunes and because it is so similar (similarly good mind you), it seems a bit contrived by comparison. Did designer Rod Whitman use Bandon as source for designing the Links?
So I always thought Rod Whitman was Golf Digest’s golf architecture critic Ron Whitten. So I was dying to critique this course harshly. Whitten seems to me to be the very essence of the golf course architecture snob/nerd that I write about. Seems a bit curmudgeonly too – like playing with a golf rules nerd he seems like he’d be a real hoot to play golf with (note heavy sarcasm). However I never met the man so I am being speculative.
So even when I thought this was the critic’s course (but am not surprised it wasn’t) I really found nothing to critique. Whitman used great traditional golf hole templates and laid them out on a great piece of property.
The par-three second has a Biarritz green and four is a classic cape hole (pictured above). In fact I read somewhere that Whitman saw this little cove and imagined a cape hole here and they had to acquire the land. Don’t quote me on that but I thought I read it somewhere and it really is a great golf hole. The rest features nobs and other links features so really I guess both Kidd at Bandon and Whitman here borrowed from Scottish and Irish links course to design their respective courses. That’s a great thing, too. I’m not at all saying Cabot is contrived (bad) just in comparison to Bandon Dunes it seems so similar to be that. I’m sure if this was first I would be saying it the other way around. Either way, I’d recommend Cabot.
One final thought – the 18th hole. Nothing beats having an 18th hole finish up tightly to the clubhouse – especially for a guy’s trip so your buddies can heckle and cajole the later finishers. Here you could literally bounce your approach shot off the green-level glass of the clubhouse back onto the green (a little nob protects it from errant screamers coming to the left-side of the green). Don’t try this as I don’t know how shatter resistant the glass is. There’s an outdoor seating area then beyond that. While if it were me, I’d expand that area, put a canopy over it, however it still makes for a nice gathering area for a post round drink. Google Earth has the course in street view. I recommend looking there for how nestled up the clubhouse is to the 18th (Street View).
Golf Scrapbook 