Small Cape Breton town to get another big golf course

Construction on a new golf course in Inverness is set to start this spring.

The course is being created by the same team that opened the highly successful Cabot Links course last summer.

The new course called Cabot Cliffs will be built just north of Cabot Links on a property that overlooks the Cape Breton coastline.

"It's higher as its name suggests, on the cliffs, and so it's a little bit more dramatic in that you're high up, 80 to 100 feet off the water, versus the first site which gets very, right down to sea level at a couple of points," said Ben Cowan Dewar, coowner of Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs.

"I think it'll be a nice complement and a nice differentiation of what they'll be able to produce up there."

Course architects are busy mapping the 18hole Cabot Cliffs' course.

Cowan Dewar said that Cabot Links has drawn in golfers who have never golfed on the island before, he expects that to continue with the new course.

"Cabot Cliffs was always sort of the next step in the development here in Inverness and one that we think is key to our success and having two courses to really continue to draw golfers," said Cowan Dewar.

He said the Cliffs course will offer even more variety for visitors.

Excitement already building

Some members of the tourism industry said the new course is generating a lot of buzz.

Katherine MacDonald, the golf marketing director for destination Cape Breton,said people are enthusiastic about the course because they know one of the partners behind the venture.

"A lot of the excitement that's generated is because of the investment of Mike Keiser who's also had a very successful golf resort in Bandon Dunes," said MacDonald.

In little more than a decade, the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon has grown to include five golf courses and is ranked among some of the best in the United States.

Cabot Cliffs is set to open in two years.