Cabot Links opens with more holes, a lodge and renovated restaurant

INVERNESS, NS—Golfers who come to the Cabot Links golf course in Cape Breton this year will have eight more holes to shoot and a new place to stay.

They can also have a drink in an expanded bar and dine in the newly renovated Panorama  Restaurant .

Designed by Rod Whitman and billed as a “true links course,” Cabot Links opened with 10 holes last year in Inverness,  NS.

On June 29 it will have 18 holes ready for play and 48 rooms for people to stay in the new  Cabot Links Lodge.

The 16th hole at Cabot Links, a course designed to be a true "links" course, faithful to the type found on windswept properties bordered by the sea in the British Isles.

Designed by architect Susan Fitzgerald  to provide deluxe accommodation, the lodge is mainly framed in wood  and clad with cedar  shingles. While it features renewable materials,  it is furnished with Beltrami linens, Ralph Lauren lighting and fabrics, Paul Smith décor and a Philippe Starck Louis Ghost armchair.

Interior design of the guest rooms, bar and restaurant  was done by Los Angeles-based Alexandra Angle,.

The restaurant has 82 sets inside and 52 outdoors, while the Cabot Bar has 75 seats inside and 20 on the patio.

More than just a place to feed golfers and guests, the Panorama  Room is a destination restaurant open to the public.

The kitchen is overseen by husband and wife chef team John Haines and Tracy Wallace, who were previously with the Inn at St. Peters on Prince Edward Island and the Glenora Inn & Distillery  in Nova Scotia.

There is seafood on the breakfast menu—a lobster frittata sells for $17 and haddock fish cakes are $15.

Dinner mains include roasted Atlantic halibut ($36) and Digby scallop pasta ($31). The menu takes a bistro turn with steak frites, although the steak is rib and the fries flavoured with truffle. Price is $35.The vegetarian option here is bell pepper stuffed with orzo, accompanied by grilled vegetables feta and smoked tomato reduction.

The wine list is international and includes selections from Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia, with a group of bottles mainly in the $35 to $46 range, and another group costing $58 to $175.

Six selections by the glass are priced  $7 to $9.

One high-priced standout is a 2008 Petrus for $3,250.

There is a wide selection of single malt whiskies on the drinks menu, all scotch except for three Glen Bretons from Nova Scotia’s own Glenora Distillery.

The Cabot Links property is owned by Canadian-based golf travel company owner  Ben Cowan-Dewar  in a partnership with  Mike Keiser,  proprietor  of the Brandon Dunes golf course near Bandon, Oregon.