Courtesy: Highlands Links

Cape Breton Island lies a few hundred feet off Nova Scotia on Canada's mainland.

It was discovered "officially" by John Cabot, an Italian explorer, in 1497, five years after Columbus discovered America.

But Cape Breton was visited more than once by the Vikings hundreds of years earlier.

The land is rich in history.

And it's rich in golf. Fabulous golf.

Cape Breton is one of those places where golfers think they've died and gone to heaven and non-golfers think likewise.

There are four tremendous courses on the Island and today we'll focus on one of them: Highlands Links.
Let me just thank Mike for the heads-up on Highlands Links. Mike read the post about golf in Scotland and let me know that he thinks Highlands Links is on a par.

It's also, he cleverly pointed out, much closer for North American golfers than Scotland.

Highlands Links likes on the eastern edge of Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The course was designed by famed Canadian architect Stanley Thompson in 1939. He called Highlands Links the "mountains and ocean course" and imbued the topography with elements from Scottish courses.

The course measures just over 65 hundred yards from the back tees.

Narrow, rolling fairways and small greens challenge every level of player at Highlands Links. And it is a true links course. You head out and don't see the clubhouse again until you walk off the 18th green.

The first six holes run along the Atlantic Ocean. Beautiful scenery; tricky winds.

Highlands Links is located in the small Cape Breton community of Ingonish. You have to go to Cape Breton to appreciate the rich Scottish and Acadian culture. In short, you'll have a blast on and off the course.

South of Ingonish, down the spectacular Cape Breton Trail, is the larger town of Baddeck, where the off-season population is about 800 but, during the summer, swells to several thousand with the arrival of the tourists. There is also another wonderful course there. But that's for a later post!

There are plenty of great resort hotels and motels to stay in and, everywhere, the warmth and humor of the people of Cape Breton.

Back to the skinny on Highlands Links. At the height of golf season, you won't pay more than $85 CDN plus tax to play one of the best courses in North America.

And the package deals are flat out bargains.

The nearest regional airport is Sydney on Cape Breton Island but Nova Scotia's main facility is in the provincial capital, Halifax.

Words don't do Highlands Links justice. Visit their website and gaze at the stunning pictures.