Cape Breton Island, home to Cabot Cliffs and Highlands Links, boasts spectacular golf in the fall

By many accounts it seems rather odd that little old Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada -- a rocky, wave-battered island of less than 4,000 square miles and home to just more than 130,000 people -- has become one of the world's great golf destinations.

But, thanks to the two stunning seaside courses at Cabot Links (Cabot Cliffs, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, opened this past summer to rave reviews), as well as the heralded Stanley Thompson relic at Highlands Links, the island is a force to be reckoned with.

Unquestionably, it was the original course at Cabot Links, a Rod Whitman design that swerves through dunes and an old fishing port, that got the ball rolling. Mike Keiser and Ben Cowan-Dewar, the brains behind the Cabot Links project, deserve the bulk of the credit. It's a special place, no question about it. And lovers of the old world game certainly have another place to hang their hat.

Cabot Links, as well as the other courses on the Maritime island, tend to photograph very well, especially in fall when the colors, similar to Appalachia, explode in every shade under the sun.

As both a golf course photographer and a golf professional, the courses of Cape Breton spoke in loud tones on my recent visit. Hopefully you can hear them in these images.