I’ve never had the pleasure to meet or interview Ben Cowan-Dewar.
Or play the two world-class courses he’s credited with co-founding: Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs.
That’s not a good thing if you’re writing about golf in Canada.
Those two clubs have been feted in the media for years, both here and around the world.
All I can rely on are second-hand comments from colleagues who have talked to Cowan-Dewar or played the courses.
There seems unanimous agreement that he’s a visionary, and the courses are like nothing else in golfdom. Take St. Andrews and overlay it with Pebble Beach and it still doesn’t do justice to Cabot Cliffs, says a colleague, who ranks it tops on his “best-I’ve-ever-played” list.
What’s startling is that both are located in the tiny hamlet of Inverness, Nova Scotia, which sits on the shoulder of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in a magisterial part of Cape Breton. We’re talking about the outskirts of civilization here. The courses are built over a tapped-out coal mine in an area that was not so long ago beyond destitute.
What makes the story so compelling is the human angle. Cowan-Dewar and his wife, Allie Barclay, left the comfy confines of a successful business life in Toronto to move to Inverness and organize the financing and building of the course. They got money from Mike Keiser (creator of Bandon Dunes) and design work from Atlanta-based Rod Whitman.
It’s a gamble that has paid off handsomely. The resort is play golf as it should be played, on natural links land, with spectacular seaside views. Each hole is a picture postcard – Canada writ large.
It takes someone flush with disposable income to book passage, and getting there isn’t like a jaunt to Myrtle Beach or Pinehurst. Cabot Resort is way out there, not along a well-worn path.
It features two championship layouts, three on-site restaurants, a luxury hotel, and golf villas for purchase or rent.
It’s not just a golfing success story, but a Canadian one as well. The testimonials are glowing; the awards are many; and the resort has created hundreds of new jobs for Invernessers who lost theirs when the mines shut down. Millions in investment have been poured into an area once choking on financial fumes.
There are few visionaries like Cowan-Dewar in the golf business, but if you missed the news, he’s now begun another chapter in his life. Earlier this year, he was named chairperson of Destination Canada, the tourism marketing organization promoting us around the world. Its mandate is simple: to grow tourism revenue. Its target: a new generation of inbound visitors. Its commitment to golf is, as yet, unknown.
Travelling golfers spend billions each year playing courses around the world. A 2016 Golf Tourism Survey from the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO) shows a steady five-year growth rate that averages 7.5 per cent a year. It’s two points higher in North America. IAGTO represents about 2,500 members in 97 countries, including a light sprinkling of Canadians. Its tour operators are responsible for 87 per cent of golf travel annually.
Cowan-Dewar has witnessed firsthand how golf can be a driver for change. Unfortunately, others in the industry are not so enlightened. Most are narrowly focused on their own clubs, and fail to understand how tourism can act as a shot in the arm for all.
Can Cowan-Dewar’s appointment bring an infusion of golf tourism dollars to this country? Why not? But first, clubs have to sign on to a pan-Canada approach to promoting us as a landing pad for visitors. It’s a challenge that Cowan-Dewar is well positioned to accept.
We’re a vast and disparate country, and the same can be said for the golf industry. Taking a Team Canada approach to attracting inbound golfers is something Destination Canada must consider. It certainly has the right person at the helm. Anyone who can create a world-class facility in mining country is a man who gets things done.
One of my favourite wags in the golf writing business is located in B.C. We often ask why Canada’s rich and deep golf portfolio is such a well-kept secret. Ireland, England, Scotland, and Brand USA work non-stop to promote their courses. So do most other countries in the world.
“When the Yanks and others see the scenery and layouts of our courses in Canada they are gobstruck,” says my B.C. colleague. These other countries also promote themselves at industry events all over the world. Go to the giant PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando and one of the few no-shows is Canada. When IAGTO holds its four annual conventions each year, Canada isn’t there, either.
Will that change now that Cowan-Dewar is heading up Destination Canada’s 12-person board?
Let’s hope so. No doubt, the golf industry needs an influx of ideas, and struggling clubs need new revenue streams. Why not fill tee sheets with visitors from other nations?
The participation rate for golf in this country continues to slide. Course closings are an everyday occurrence. We have some of the most beautiful natural settings on the planet, from the cliffs of Cape Breton to the dramatic valley courses in the Rocky Mountains. What visitor wouldn’t want to stay and play in PEI, Quebec, Ontario, or any of our prairie courses?
Last year a tour operator in New Zealand sent a group of golfers across Canada, starting in Cape Breton, moving on to Toronto, and then B.C. The testimonials from visitors were overwhelmingly positive. A couple of years ago, I had a hand in helping organize a golf tour through Ontario. Our visitors from the U.S. and Europe were effusive in their praise. They also said it was the best-kept secret in golf.
If Cowan-Dewar puts a strategic plan in place, everyone profits. He did it when he had a vision for the Cabot Resort, and he implemented it when he set up the new Nova Scotia Tourism Agency. Bardish Chagger, our minister of small business and tourism, says his “trailblazing work” there will work with Destination Canada. He’s one of the industry’s great leaders, she says.
Golf should be heartened by Cowan-Dewar’s appointment. It’s good to have one of ours in charge of such a key position.
It was his vision that reimagined a little corner of Cape Breton caught in a life and death struggle to survive. He did it by using golf as the catalyst. Can he do the same thing with Destination Canada?
Because he’s a golfer, I’m willing to bet he’ll give it his best shot.
