Cabot’s Newest Course, Revelstoke, Rises In The Canadian Rockies

Cabot Revelstoke has opened for limited public preview play in the mountains of British Columbia

Jacob Sjoman | Cabot

Cabot founder Ben Cowan-Dewar has built a golf brand around creating magical experiences in remarkable locations. You won’t find many more fantastical settings than the mountain surrounds of the newest Cabot destination: Revelstoke.

The four-season resort and residential project in British Columbia has opened limited preview play of its new Rod Whitman-designed layout set against the backdrop of the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges.

Revelstoke is the first mountain property in the expanding Cabot portfolio and unlike anything the brand has built. Cowan-Dewar said when he first saw the site – set in an area celebrated as the “heli-ski capital of the world” – it immediately made him think of the two dramatic golf courses in Banff and Jasper designed by Canadian architect Stanley Thompson: the Fairmont Banff Springs and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course.

“This property is incredibly special for golf because of its dramatic mountain peaks, rugged landscape and setting above the Columbia River Valley,” said Cowan-Dewar. “I believe Revelstoke’s reputation as a ski destination will now be matched by its profile as a summer destination, particularly with the debut of this course.”

Whitman designed Cabot’s first course, Cabot Links, in Nova Scotia in 2012 and Cowan-Dewar said what the architect accomplished in Revelstoke surpassed all his expectations, particularly since the Cabot team had fully anticipated that the steep terrain and unique alpine climate would present a significant challenge on the development front.

“At Revelstoke, we are fortunate to have both an incredible setting and land that naturally complements the game,” said Whitman, who teamed with Dave Axland and Keith Cutten on the design. “There’s no need to manufacture drama here — the mountains have already done that.”

The course boasts sweeping vistas of the surrounding peaks as well as the Columbia River and its design embraces the natural terrain, with generous fairways and expansive greens on holes that play along dramatic cliffs, meandering streams and exposed rock outcroppings.

“We focused on working with the land, giving golfers different options,” Whitman added. “There’s plenty of movement and variety in the land, but it’s also playable. We hope people leave with a sense of awe at the setting and the feeling that they just had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Cabot is developing a 155-room hotel at the site and Cowan-Dewar has said the location is poised to become a basecamp for year-round mountain adventure – including golf on Whitman’s public 18-hole layout during the summer months.

“The site is spectacular,” said Whitman. “In more than 40 years of designing courses, I’ve seen some dramatic mountain properties, but they’re not always suited to great golf.”

Revelstoke joins Cape Breton (Canada), Citrus Farms (Florida), Highlands (Scotland), St. Lucia (the Caribbean), Bordeaux (France) within the Cabot portfolio. The company also partially owns and operates Lofoten Links (Norway) and recently announced the development of another Nova Scotia location in Cabot Wilds.

With its dramatic mountain setting – from greens to gondolas — Revelstoke now gives Cabot an experience and appearance unlike any of the others.