Back around 1895, Walter Crowe, the mayor of the Cape Breton city of Sydney, organized the first round of golf on record in Nova Scotia. Crowe and his cronies made due with the resources on hand, playing in Victoria Park on grass kept short by grazing cattle. In the century since that little ball first rolled across those makeshift links, Nova Scotia has evolved into a premiere golf destination. From the international calibre course at Highland Links (named Best Public Course in Canada 2006) to the seaside charm of White Point Golf Club's 1930s Donald Ross course on the South Shore, there is a great and diverse golf experience for all skill levels available in the province.
With almost a hundred courses scattered across the compact province (including four in the top forty of ScoreGolf's 2006 Best Courses in Canada list) it's easy to pack a lot of great golf in one long weekend. The award-winning Graham Cooke-designed course of Fox Harb'r Golf Resort and Spa, for instance, offers a par 72, parkland links experience. Fox Harb'r's #16 hole, one of Ian Cruikshank's picks for top holes in Canada, is a 354 yard par 4 that dares you to drive the ball over a particularly picturesque inlet of the Northumberland Strait..
The Resorts of Cape Breton Island (named, by the way, the #1 island in Continental North America to visit by Travel and Leisure Magazine) offer golf-themed vacation packages that start at $99 per person per night. Cape Breton is home to the Fabulous Four: Bell Bay Golf Club, Le Portage Golf Club, Dundee, and Highland Links. These spectacular courses represent an almost mythic experience for devoted golfers. Step up to the challenge of Stanley Thomspon's exquisite yet torturous # 7 hole Highland Links – a 570 yard par 5 with a "hero or a goat" edge to it. At Bell Bay in Baddeck, you can play a Thomas McBroom par 72 seaside masterpiece for under a hundred bucks – including cart!
Touring the Southwest Region of the province takes you to some of the earliest settlements in North America. Samuel Champlain and his crew set up shop in the early 1600s, founding the Habitation at Port Royal. Touring and establishing the Order of the Good Times, setting the tone for 19th Hole festivities a couple of centuries later. You can explore a little history in this neck of the woods and get in some great golf at Digby Pines, named a Gold Medal Golf Resort by Golf Magazine. The Pines Golfer’s Delight package offers a value-added opportunity to play a modernized Stanley Thompson course featuring a # 5 hole considered one of the toughest holes in Canada.
Beyond the elegant resorts with on site golf courses, you'll find a wide range of great accommodations to suit you and your golf buddies. Whatever your style - casual, comfortable seaside cabins where the lobster dinner is delivered to your cottage door or chic downtown suites in the middle of the cosmopolitan nightlife of the capital city of Halifax, or a gracious country inn, there's always plenty to keep you occupied in the hours before and after golf. Spend a night at the casino, a day lazing on an uncrowded stretch of pristine beach or an afternoon whale watching on the world's highest tides.
Your great Nova Scotian golf extravaganza is easy to access. You can fly direct from major cities across the continent, and the province is just a day's drive from most points in New England – and there's always the high speed Cat ferry to cut down on time behind the wheel.