Bought a hat once. Did not receive a free bowl of soup with it. @BostonCollege 2012

Aug 7, 2016

Course Review — Cabot Cliffs

For my review of the Links course at Cabot Links, click here.

Everything about Cabot Links was top notch, from the service to the food to the accommodations. And of course, the golf, as the undisputed star of the show, was world class. But not all world-class courses are created equal.

The Links course is tremendous. Rumpled fairways, grassy dunes, double greens, a huge variety of holes, and stellar views from every hole. But the Cliffs course is something else entirely.

In the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game series (RIP), you could unlock these outrageous fictional golf courses. One was in the middle of Central Park, another took you around a Greek island (sidenote, don’t read the comments on that video), and a third snaked around and through some ridiculously heaving Australian topography. These were the kinds of courses you couldn’t imagine ever existing in the real world — the elevation changes were too severe, the greens were perched too precariously, and the terrain was simply too wild and unrealistic to actually hack out enough space to lay a few golf holes.

Cabot Cliffs is the closest thing I’ve seen to that kind of video game course.

If you’ve read any reviews of the track, you’ll have heard about the even distribution of par 3s, 4, and 5s; the massively diverse terrain; and the jaw-dropping final three holes. It’s all true. But it’s everything else that makes Cabot Cliffs so mind-bendingly awesome.

First, the approach. You’re shuttled from the clubhouse at the Links off the property and through about a mile of pine forests before turning left down a long, winding, two-lane driveway. The anticipation builds, and builds, and builds. Until, finally:

Don’t mind me discussing whether the clubhouse was a hut or a yurt.

As you can see, the course was still slightly unfinished — the open space to the left is going to be the driving range, and there are still some piles of rocks and building materials here and there. But if you think that detracted from our enjoyment of the round, you’re sorely mistaken.

This is the view from just left of the first tee. It starts down the first fairway, then pans along the 10th (running the opposite direction of the first) and across to the stretch of the 17th and 18th, with the cliffs of the 16th visible in the background.

I didn’t take a ton of photos of the Cliffs course, preferring to shoot short videos. I think the clips (while they look like they were shot by a toddler) do a better job of conveying the epic scale of the property. It’s a scale that doesn’t truly hit you until you putt out on number 1, a rather straightforward par-5, and walk towards the ocean to find the second tee.

2nd hole

In my Cabot Links post, I talked about how several holes on that course had a chance to be my favorite hole of the trip. But in truth, they were all playing for second. Because this hole was an absolute beauty. I won’t go into detail about many holes (in fact, I might just do it for this one), but the second deserves some discussion.

The way this hole is designed shows you a lot about the philosophy of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The footprint of this hole is absolutely immense. From the tips, it’s only 402 yards, but the insane width of the fairway, combined with the elevated tee and Olympic ski-jump carry, give this hole an overwhelming sense of grandeur.

C+C could have gone anywhere with this particular plot of land. They could have created a dogleg left, swinging golfers around towards the dunes and the beach. They could have gone the opposite way, perching the green site high in the dunes and creating a seesaw-like hole, high to low to high again.

Instead, they opted for fun. They created a fairway that looked like a regular hole’s fairway turned 90 degrees. They terminated the fairway with a gorgeous stream running in front of the green, with what looks like an oversized beaver lodge directly in the center. They left that monstrous mound in front of the green alone, scooped two bunkers into it, and built a green site that mirrors the fairway in both shape and size. And they built a hole that looks just as beautiful from the green as it does from the tee.

It’s not easy to design a hole this fun that also demands this much strategy. Because of that shaggy mound bisecting the green, hitting the correct portion of the fairway is crucial if you want a good look at the pin. All in all, this hole is tremendous.

3rd hole

It’s hard to follow up something like the 2nd, but this is Cabot Cliffs, where impossible is nothing (shouts to Adidas). Another long forced carry with a generous landing area, but this one’s a little more complicated. That smudge in the middle of the fairway is a very penal bunker, which we were all happy to avoid. The green falls away to the back, right, and front, and is guarded front left by a tall and steep-faced bunker. Thus, the more you flirt with the bunkers edging the right side of the fairway, the clearer shot to this elevated green you’ll have.

The fourth hole has two greens.

Like, two very distinct, not in any way connected, separate, greens.

It’s the first par-3 you encounter at Cabot Cliffs, and it’s more than a little weird. I don’t know how they decide which hole you’re hitting to, but both rounds we played were on the same day and we took aim at the far green (it was the only one with a flag in it).

Also, stick around to the end of that video to see the third green, and the monstrous lump front left which is the backside of that juicy greenside bunker I talked about earlier.

This hole is just awesome. It’s a beefier version of the sixth at Cabot Links — an incredibly severe dogleg left, with a ghastly bunker on the right side of the fairway reminiscent of some Island of Doctor Moreau-type hybrid of the Himalayas and Big Nellie bunkers from Royal St. George’s and Royal Portrush. Look at this baby.

This was taken from the top of the hill, with the offending bunker visible on the right side. It’s hard to get a good sense of its size from here, but just know that the wall of sand is about 20 feet high.

If you’re feeling pumped and jacked, as Pete Carroll used to say, you can try to cut off about 85% of the hole and take one deep over the corner.

I tried this, and it ended with my ball landing where Frank Costello wants his bodies dumped.

I messed up by not capturing the 6th hole. It’s the definition of a sexy golf hole — a medium-length par 3 set in a valley between grassy dunes beside the sea. Absolutely reminiscent of something you’d see in the British Isles, complete with an amphitheater green with a dramatic slope running through the center of it. Really a beautiful hole. But now, on to the 7th.

If that view looks familiar, it should. The 7th and 3rd share tee boxes, which made for a pretty interesting situation where you had to wait for a player in the adjacent group to tee off before you hit your tee ball.

Seven is the first of back-to-back par 5s, both of which play through pine forests and wouldn’t be out of place in Minnesota. Each hole has their redeeming qualities, including a massive valley in front of the 7th green that forces an aerial carry to the green, and a well-placed central fairway bunker that forces you to pick a line off the tee on the 8th.

Seven brings you away from the water, and eight returns you to it. But nine, reminiscent of 14 at Cabot Links, uses the ocean to mess with your depth perception — and your emotions. Look at this little beauty.

I thought Greg would be upset with me for filming him, so I said “I’m not filming you.” He told me it was OK, I could film him.

He promptly chunked it into the bunker.

Also, super humble brag, I went eagle-birdie on 8 and 9 in our second round here.

It got me to +3 through 9 holes. The quad on the 7th sure didn’t help matters.

I’ve done a lot of reading about Cabot Cliffs, and it seems like Ben Cowan-Dewar’s guiding principle for Coore and Crenshaw was to build the best golf course they could, regardless of normal golf course architecture principles. Hence the six holes of each par, the back-to-back par 5s, and the fact that the 10th hole returns players to the clubhouse in much the same way that many 9th holes do. I guess if you want half a round here, you’re either playing the front 10 holes or the back 8.

As far as straightaway par-5s go, you can’t do much better than the 10th at Cabot Cliffs. The hole is strung above the course’s namesake bluffs, making anything left an absolute disaster. The hole’s right side is delineated by a series of grassy dunes and bunkers that separate it from the first.

Here’s a photo of our heroes approaching the green, which is fronted by a thin section of the cliff that snakes in to create a kind of brushy gorge.

Eleven is a fun, uphill par 4 with a wide landing area, a penal fairway bunker on the right (into which I PLUGGED my drive, necessitating a mulligan from the tee), and a plateau green with fairway-length grass all the way around.

The 12th is a long par-3, with a carry over some brush and a few bunkers short of the green that catch any drives not laden with the requisite mustard. It’s a good thing they didn’t try to call this course Cabot Links, as the hallmarks of links golf (like run-up shots) are thrown out the window. This course defies definition. Here’s another shot of our boys striding down the boardwalk to the 12th green.

The 13th is another uphill par-4, this one playing to a fairway canted heavily left-to-right. The green is obscured by a gargantuan mound. I mean, you literally can’t see any of the green from the fairway. Take at least one, maybe two, extra clubs on the approach, because if you don’t clear this mountain your ball may well roll back close to 100 yards.

Here’s the view of the par-3 14th, with the landing area of the 13th to your left.

Fourteen is a beautiful hole in its own right. A prominent rock sits directly in front of the green (and, during our rounds, the pin), and I can only imagine the chaotic ricochets that thing provides. Fortunately, we all played this hole with no pinball side effects. Also, I did one of those “Just for fun, I’m gonna hit another one” shots after I hit my first tee ball. Landed it two inches from the hole, stopped a foot past. Practice makes perfect.

Fifteen’s a par 5. It’s long, and blind on the second shot, and downhill, and it serves its purpose. Because its purpose is to act as foreplay for the climax of the round.

I took this from the Cabot Links website, because it’s too good a photo to not use. If you Google “Cabot Cliffs,” this hole dominates the results, and with good reason. It’s an absolute 10.

Unless you get an aerial view (or you visit), you don’t realize just how large this green is. I made the mistake of firing at the pin, which was cut on the thin promontory of green that has had a hand in vaulting this course into the top 20 in the world rankings. But the green splays out left and back from there, offering a large upper plateau ripe for more pin positions (and safer tee shots).

Some notable occurrences on this hole:

Tim played it safe and hit the left side of the green both times, then pulled a very Phil Mickelson-esque move by softly pitching the ball from the upper plateau to the lower (no divot, obviously) for short looks at par.
Chris played the hole -1 through two rounds, canning a downhill 10-footer for birdie on our second go-round to tighten up the championship match of the Buff Chick Fing Calzopen.
I fell completely apart both times I played the hole, the second time landing in the front greenside bunker:

…from which I promptly smoked my bunker shot over the flag, over the green, and right off the cliff. I still had fun though.

The drama continues at 17. Like many holes at Cabot Cliffs, the 17th had a ribbon of teeing grounds rather than defined tee boxes. It’s not a major difference from a traditional course, but it keeps the sense of fun and childish excitement high.

If you watch any golf on TV, you’ll see these two holes featured on the new Titleist Velocity commercial:

The final shot, at around the 24 second mark, is the tee shot on 17. And you really can reach this green from the tee if you take the right line (although that Titleist traj is a bit unrealistic). Your best play is to crush one over the highest point in the bluffs with some fade, and let the large, sloping fairway funnel your ball down onto the green.

This is one of those holes that I wish there was some kind of camera system where you could hit your drive, then look at a video screen on the tee box and see what your ball does. The sense of wonder and excitement when you reach the crest of the hill and find your ball is unmatched, but the hole is so good that I want to see my shot during its roll-out, and not just at its final resting place.

This hole also produced what was, until that point, the funniest moment of the trip. Chris and I were locked in a match-play battle in the championship of the aforementioned (and amazingly named) Buff Chick Fing Calzopen. After being 3 up with 4 to play, I lost the 15th and 16th holes to set up a dramatic finish.

And remember how I discussed our widely varying fortunes on the 16th? Yeah, Chris birdied it while I made a triple. The rule for the week was that any time you made triple bogey or worse, you had to play the next hole with a Spongeball. What’s a Spongeball, you ask?

This.

So after my disaster on 16, I set that little bastard up on the tee at 17 and absolutely annihilated it. Ended up in a greenside bunker, where it took me two shots to escape. I’m lying three, about 30 feet from the hole. Chris lost his tee shot left and finished with a double, so I have two putts for the victory. The hole’s cut on the far right side of the green, and I’m in the center — it’s a downhill, slightly left to right putt.

Here’s a look at the green from behind to give you some idea of the setup.

I line that Wilson logo up with my intended line and give Mister Squarepants a firm rap.

Dead center.

I walk over to the hole like that’s a normal thing that I do — make long-range putts under pressure — and calmly shake Chris’s hand. He asks to see the ball. I know he didn’t make a triple, so I’m nervous. He’s usually pretty even-tempered, but I can tell he’s hot under the collar. The conversation went something like this:

“Hey, let me see that ball.”

“No way, you’ll throw it in the ocean.”

“No I won’t.”

“You’re definitely gonna throw it in the ocean.”

“Dude, I swear to God I’m not gonna throw it in the ocean.”

“OK…”

I toss him the ball. He’s about 10 feet away from me, nearer to the ocean than I am. He catches it, turns away, whips his head back around to look at me, and drops the hammer:

“I’m gonna putt it.”

Before I can even think of what to say, he drops the ball, pulls back his putter almost to knee level, and sends a screaming hot ground ball off the edge of the cliff and deep into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

We all absolutely lost it.

Presented without comment, the funniest moment of the trip.

OK, fine, a little comment. I’m very long-winded, if you couldn’t tell.

By the time I started filming, I think Tim was on his third tee ball. The kid just could not find the fairway. Around the :35 mark, you’ll hear Greg eject a little snort giggle in the midst of Tim’s backswing. Between this shot and the next, we hear the reason for this laugh, as Greg said:

“To be quite honest, I thought you looked like a Pizza Hut delivery boy.”

Chris doubled over in a fit of giggles, I got all goofy behind the camera, and Tim succumbed for a moment before collecting himself and splitting the fairway. He finished with an emphatic but good-natured “F*** you!” that I trampled all over in my audio commentary.

The 18th is a mirror image of the 10th, with a gully slicing into the fairway about 50 yards out. This allows for run-up shots and takes away some of the fear in going for the green in two — which only adds to the allure of a closing par 5.

Even after all these words and photos and videos, I haven’t done enough to capture the feeling of playing Cabot Cliffs. It’s almost impossible. All the slopes are more dramatic than you imagine, the fairways are wider, the carries more daunting (but somehow more confidence-inspiring as well). The views are incomparable, and the variety of landscape means that for several inland holes, you’ll believe you’re playing one of the best parkland golf courses in the world, rather than one of the best seaside courses in the world.

It was a 12-hour drive. But it was absolutely worth it.