Cape Breton Highlands Links — Attraction in Ingonish Beach

I wish I could give this a 4 but I can’t. If you are going to pay 150 dollars green fees plus cart etc. you expect a certain level of service and this course does not provide that. The good - the design is impressive and the views truly magnificent. The fairways and rough are effectively managed - a lot of moguls in the fairways. But (and I want to emphasize this) this is NOT enough if you are going charge these prices. Fairways (early spring) in good conditions. Some of the greens need work - they are NOT too 100 condition at all. The not so good (for a course of this level). my municipal course had nicer carts than these. The cart path is a disgrace - heavy rock dirt trail - it’s a mess. The service is sparse at best. No drink cart. Service is minimal at best, dismissive at worst. You are not greated, assisted or welcomed in almost any way. This is tourism folks - you need to do better. I drive longer than 6 hours to add this to my play list - wish I had not. Black flies are bad in the valley section - not unmanageable, not much to be done. Bring Deep Wood off for sure. Traps are in medium condition. Then there are some baffling decisions. They have a beautiful long par 3 in the valley section and they built a gross looking cement brick power station 200 feet above it. It’s like choosing to paint a zit on the face of Mona Lisa. If this wasn’t a Stanley Thompson design with views - this would be a 2 star course. Here’s hoping They can put some effort into this course cause it could and should be a destination. As it stands - I would not recommend...

Drive around Cape Breton Island in 2 days and 1 night with a 91 yr old Grandpa. A very easy drive from Halifax to Cape Breton. Check in the Air B&B, unload the luggages, drive around that area, check out the Lakes at Ben Eoin Golf Club & Resort. Go into a cozy little house by the Big Pond which also belong to the Air b&b. Grandpa can enjoy the beautiful sunset indoor other can have fun by the shore taking all kinds of sunset pictures. Supper in Sydney after the sunset is a challenge because most of the restaurants are closed. The Air b&b we stay in is very nice with 3 comfy bedrooms. We can have a good rest. Second day, have picnic in Ingonish Beach, then visit Keltic Lodge, not counting all the amazing look off sites, next stop is Meat Cove. the drive is a bit bumpy, but worth the ride, the view is breath taking. Last stop is the Skyline, take a short hike. another amazing scenery. I wish we can finish the whole trail and stay there longer, but with the 91 yr old grandpa, just go out to the west side of the path is good enough. During the trip, we see the autumn color, special vegetation pebbles beach, beautiful resort, splendid coast line, shapely cliffs, calm lakes, rough ocean, hidden streams, open rivers, up the highlands, down the valley, baby bear crossing the road, deer hiding behind the trees and porcupine walking into the bushes, seal diving into the ocean. I think we may see the whale if we can stay longer in...

well its apparent that when the union workers were maintaining the course it was in awesome condition now its just a good place to golf and should not even be in the top 20 in the country. Its a joke when outside agencies rate these courses because they get treated like kings for a positive and bias rating .The recent experience I had with the course was on August 1 2015 the greens on the front nine were in terrible condition the back nine were 100 percent better .Sand traps are in deplorable condition there is rocks bigger than a golf ball among plenty other rocks there is no signage to alert golfers in carts to stay within acceptable distance of the greens which most golfers should know I witnessed carts within 10 feet of the green. So if these conditions get u a rating of 3rd best course in Canada then maybe we should charge these people rating the courses green fees and no freebees to up the ratings In closing I would like to say I am a resident of cape Breton and for sheer cape Breton beauty people will play Higland Links course but I can guarantee cape Breton workers would take special care of this course so I say to the company running the show now we want our course back to first class status like it was before you took control and are now...