Cabot Revelstoke is golf's next great mountain course—and we got a first look
REVELSTOKE, British Columbia -- Ben Cowan-Dewar isn’t usually a fan of mountain golf. His expectations were tempered eight years ago before he first saw the site that would turn into Cabot Revelstoke. Revelstoke, after all, is the site of the largest vertical drop on its epic skiing hills in North America. Sounds like it’d be too severe for golf.
But the CEO and co-founder of Cabot loved what he saw. He was reminded of The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., while discovering more gently tumbling terrain with rock outcroppings that would turn into Cabot Revelstoke’s third and fourth holes.
Then he crossed the road and came upon even more glorious land, which is now the seventh hole (below, right), a great risk-reward hole that hugs a large retention pond and plays to a fabulous infinity green that looks out at Mount Begbie. That's followed by the jaw-dropping eighth hole, a long par 3 playing over a huge chasm, and the ninth (below, left), which plays to a landing area also protected by the pond to the left.
Cowan-Dewar called Rod Whitman from the site and told him he had to come to Revelstoke to confirm what he was looking at: He had just found golf’s next great mountain course.
“Rarely am I ever reminded of specific sites, but this really reminded me so much of Brookline,” Cowan-Dewar said at a preview of Cabot Revelstoke, which will open officially on July 2, a day after Canada Day. “The movement here, it was never severe and there was real drama to the land. And I was like, ‘This is actually amazing.’ ”
A view from the tee box of the par-3 third hole, which is carved around massive rock and features gentle land movemen that reminded Ben Cowan-Dewar of The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
Whitman, who grew up in western Canada in the shadows of two of golf’s greatest mountain courses, Jasper Park and Banff, and visited each as a kid, confirmed Cowan-Dewar’s impressions. Now about eight years after seeing the site, the two got to play Whitman’s creation together—and I got to tag along.
Before they hit their inaugural tee shots at Cabot Revelstoke, Cowan-Dewar reflected on the first time he met Whitman, 25 years ago.
Above: Rod Whitman hits the inaugural tee shot at Cabot Revelstoke's first hole.
Just 22 years old in 2001, Cowan-Dewar arranged to play with Whitman on the architect’s first original course, Wolf Creek in Alberta, Canada. He told Whitman that he would one day build a course in Canada. And Whitman would be his architect.
Jacob Sjöman
Whitman couldn’t help but subtly roll his eyes. What kind of a 22-year-old makes a statement like that? His proclamation came true in 2012 at Cabot Links, the first course in Cabot’s portfolio, built, of course, by Whitman. Now the two were about to walk their second Canadian destination together, which took about three seasons of construction to come together.
“These are legacy courses for me, you know?” Whitman said. “As a Canadian, I spent most of my life on the road, working in Europe, Asia, the United States. So to contribute to the whole golf atmosphere here in Canada is special.”
Jacob Sjöman/Courtesy of Cabot
Revelstoke has always been a special town, too, known to adventurous skiers who take helicopters up to the top of mountain glaciers and ski down. Turns out, golf is the latest adventure in this quiet locale. Most travelers will fly into Kelowna airport, about a two-hour drive to Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Northland Properties owns the resort, along with a number of hospitality properties around North America. That includes the lovely Sutton Place Hotel also at the base of the mountain at Revelstoke. Bob Gaglardi, the founder and chairman, and his son, Tom, now president, connected with Cowan-Dewar to bring the Cabot Revelstoke project to life. The team had a few architects visit this site over a few decades, but Cowan-Dewar and Whitman were able to solve the riddle to make Cabot Revelstoke happen.
Aside from the number of environmental and drainage considerations of building a golf course on this site, Whitman said among the toughest parts of the routing was figuring out the first and 18th holes. In a finished product, you’d have no idea—they got it very right. The tee shot on the first hole, a short par 4 that will be drivable for some, tumbles downhill to a green set beneath the Columbia River valley and Mount Begbie—a glorious, 9,000-foot glaciated mountain summit that dominates the skyline of Revelstoke. And it sets the tone for what you should be expecting the rest of the round. At every turn, you are struck by the setting's stunning beauty.
The second hole is a unique tee shot (above), where you’re asked to carry rock outcroppings and hold a fairway that rolls steeply right to left. The green (below) reveals itself beautifully, set against a rocky ledge built up by Whitman’s crew.
The stretch of 3 and 4 might be the favorite for architectural buffs. Those are still growing in, so we didn’t play them—but we got a look at No. 3, which is the first of an incredible set of par 3s. That includes the aforementioned eighth hole, which requires a carry of about 180 yards from the back tees but will play nearly 220 yards all in (remember, Revelstoke sits at 1,700 feet of elevation, so most will get a few extra yards). You'll be seeing plenty of photos of the drop-shot par-3 11th. And then there's the 17th hole, offering arguably the most picturesque of the never-ending views of the mountains at a point when you wish the round was also never ending.
Above: Ben Cowan-Dewar hits his tee shot at the par-3 eighth hole.
A brand-new hotel, the Cabot Revelstoke Mountain Lodge, is set to open next year and will include 155 rooms. In addition to golf facilities, it’ll be designed for skiers, too, with hot tubs and saunas, plus check-in for heli-skiing, which is extremely popular in Revelstoke. It’s possible that either in the spring or the fall, you could go skiing in the morning then play golf in the afternoon, or vice versa.
As with other Cabot locations, Cabot Revelstoke will also include luxurious real-estate options with the first phrase including nine residences, starting at 3,141 square feet and designed by the architecture firm of Hart Howerton, which has designed Apogee Club, Cabot Citrus Farms and Discovery Land properties like Kuki’o Golf and Beach Club, Chileno Bay and Yellowstone Club.
Above: Cabot Revelstoke's Director of Golf Operations Tahlon Sweenie tees off on the par-3 17th hole.
