Site clearance has started at Cabot Links on the Canadian island of Cape Breton (see GCA issue 3), the proposed course at Inverness, which stands to be one of the most important developments in the history of Canadian golf.We are now pleased to hear that development is firmly underway and Cabot Links is hoped to begin construction in the spring of 2007.

The development, on a 195-acre oceanfront site on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, has already been heralded by Canada's top golf journalists as one of the most promising golf properties ever constructed. Rob Thompson of The National Post, and The Globe And Mail's Lorne Rubenstein, have said the site will draw comparisons to Oregon's Bandon Dunes, and some of the finest classic links courses in Scotland and Ireland. Ran Morrissett, founder of GolfClubAtlas.com, has joined forces with developer Ben Cowan-Dewar on the Cabot project. "To imagine that I am involved in a project with 2,200 yards of prime oceanfront property is a dream come true.

There is a great sense of responsibility in maximising this unique opportunity," he said.

On the marriage between the property and the old mining town of Inverness, whose limits pin the site against the shores of the Northumberland Strait, architect Rod Whitman said: "We strongly feel this intimacy will provide Cabot Links with a unique charm uncommon to North America; similar to other legendary seaside courses at places like St Andrews and Dornoch in Scotland, which meld beautifully into the fabric of the towns."