Cape Breton Highlands
Played the Highlands in 2019 as part of our Cabot trip. If you’re doing the Cabot thing I highly recommend driving a couple of hours north and playing here. Very different kind of course versus the Cabots but worth the trip since it’s unlikely you’ll ever be in this part of the world again.
This is north. Way north. I swear I saw an elven workshop and eight tiny reindeer hereabouts. Stay at the Celtic Lodge too. We had a great dinner with great views and only had to worry about crawling back to our rooms instead of avoiding bear and caribou driving down to Cabot after the round.
So we all met from the various parts of the US in Sydney then drove right to Highlands from there in the morning. If you do the same, there’s a fun little course in Sydney called Seaview that makes for a great warm up round. For the drive, you should come up to this little ferry. It fits about three cars and travels only about two Kareem Abdul Jabbars. See the “drawn to scale” image below.
I know that was a lot of work to say it was a short ferry ride but I digress. As a prank one night I’ll go up there and build a little bridge and put the ferry guys out of business. But I digress again.
To the course, Highlands is fricking tough. I shot a 103 which was my worst score in like 10 years. In my Bethpage Black write-up I discuss the hardest courses in the US. Well, Highlands is one of the toughest international courses I’ve ever played. Plus I was playing poopy so that’s a really bad combo. The course “only” measures 6,600 yards from the tips but don’t be fooled – even from the whites this is a bear. I have Carnoustie scheduled for 2022, and heard it was ranked the hardest course in the world. So can’t wait to torture myself there.
The course plays out and back and the halfway house was closed when we played, and that sucked! But either we replayed ten and in, or we stocked up because I remember having ample beers for the end of the round. Liked the par-three tenth and the par-three third was one of the prettiest holes on the course. Despite the poopy score I posted, I did really like the course and vibe.
Highlands is ranked top 100 in the world on many of the major lists. I think that’s a push but definitely put in my top 100 (though I’ve only played about 30 or so traditionally ranked top 100 courses so it may bounce out the more I play).
Golf Scrapbook 