Highland Links Golf Course – Ingonish Nova Scotia
(Built in 1936 by renowned golf course designer Stanley
Thompson. Ranked by several writers as
being in the top 100 courses in the world.
The layout of the course was intended by Thompson to replicate several
classic holes of various Scottish courses.)
With this as the background information I had found, I was
eagerly waiting to play this course.
Last week I had played with a couple who had just played here and they were disappointed because it was not a true “links style” course as
advertised. Well – I’ve only played a
links course once in my life, so this aspect was of no particular importance to
me.
The weather called for 30% chance of rain with moderate
wind. Alison dropped me off and I
checked in to see who I would be paired with.
Good news. A couple of locals,
one with his wife. I was told they would
probably be walking, so I arranged for a pull cart. Soon enough they showed up to play. The wife was driving in a cart but her
husband and the other guy would be walking.
Serious golfers! Turns out they
are members here. I discovered later in
the round that they are both retired professors. One was from Ohio but spent his academic
career as a psychology professor in Maryland.
The other guy was a history professor.
But not just a run of the mill history professor. He was the foremost expert on all things Nova
Scotia. His roots went back to the
1600’s and several generations of his family once lived on the very grounds where
we were playing this round. Additionally, he was the senior historian for Fortress
Louisburg which we had visited early on in our trip. Alison & I were overwhelmed with the
degree to which they had recreated life back in the 1700’s at this major
reconstruction venue. Turns out this guy
had an office at the site for several years while they were pouring through
over 750,000 documents to gather the relevant information for the rebuilding of
the fort.
Within a few minutes of starting to play, the skies opened
up. There was no reaction from these
guys so I asked what they thought the rest of the day would be like. They just chuckled and said this was routine
weather for them and that it would likely come and go all day. They hit it dead on – sporadic light showers
for the first several holes and then the clouds were gone. I guess the wife was just along for the ride;
she stopped playing after about 5 holes.
I think she felt uncomfortable that I had joined them.
The course itself was a bit of a disappointment because I
had intentionally been picking courses for their scenic beauty. Although there
were nice mountains in the background, there was none of the seascapes or wild
rivers that I had enjoyed at earlier courses.
Each hole had a lot of character though.
Lots of twists and turns, up and over hills to blind greens. Fairways and greens were in great
condition. If you hit off of the fairway
– good luck! Several feet of foot tall
grasses lead right into thick brush and trees.
The first 6 holes were played straight into the wind. I managed to squeak out 6 pars but this was
more than offset by some challenging holes.
One in particular had my approach shot go into a deep greenside
bunker. Four attempts later, I was on
the green and a foot from the hole. Oh
well.
Overall, I was glad to have played this course even at what
I consider an overpriced rate of $102.
Many of the more difficult courses are not necessarily the most
scenic. This is the first time I had
walked a course in a couple of years and I was beat. It seemed as though almost every hole had
significant elevation changes and many tee boxes were quite a distance from the
last green. One in particular was ¼ mile
walk along a river bank that is purportedly the most scenic walk from a green
to the next tee box of any course in the world.
A nice walk, but I wasn’t that impressed. I guess I was getting too tired of walking at
that point.
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