Highlands Links Golf Club

About the club

From its opening in 1939, the Highland Links has been numbered among the very best courses in Canada. Undertaken in part to create employment during the Great Depression, Stanley Thompson's design plays out between the sea and towering hillsides in the wilds of Nova Scotia. The first holes are situated along an inlet of the Atlantic, and the final ones are threaded amid rough terrain before their return to the clubhouse. Especially noteworthy holes include the par 5 7th, which takes players over 537 yards from the tee across some wetlands, and the 3-shot 15th, which leads to a green that is framed by the ever-present ocean and a scenic white church. To be sure the clubhouse is unimpressive and there is no driving range, but it is the movement of the holes and the one-of-a-kind setting that have maintained the course's reputation as one of the world's greatest.