By Andrew Macdonald
The Notebook received a message this week from Val and Paul Stackhouse, the former general manager and assistant GM of Digby Pines Golf Resort.
The Stackhouses have returned to a familiar home, operating Dundee Golf Course & Resort, with its 18-hole course overlooking West Bay, part of the famed Bras d’Or Lake in Cape Breton.
“Paul and I are embarking on a new adventure at Dundee Resort. Paul is the new GM, and I am the new assistant manager,” writes Val Stackhouse.
“It is a return for Paul. He was there for two seasons when Scott MacAulay still owned it,” she adds.
The Dundee course was once owned by DEVCO, the former economic development arm in Cape Breton.
In the early 1980s, the nine-hole golf course was expanded to its present 18 holes. My late dad as a Maritime-wide road builder had been hired to expand and build the extra nine holes and became a long-standing friend of then manager, the late great Terry Burns.
Veteran journalist Tom Peters, writing for The Notebook’s seasonal column on golf courses, called the course at Dundee a ‘hidden gem’.
Here is an encore of that column from summer 2021:
Headline: Dundee A ‘Hidden Gem’
By Tom Peters
‘Hidden gem’ is an idiom I don’t use often because I feel it is sometimes just an easy way out in describing something. By definition, it means “something which is extremely outstanding and not many people may know about.”
It is the first part of this idiom that I like to apply to Dundee Golf Course at the Dundee Resort in West Bay — extremely outstanding. As for the second part, I’m sure there are lots of people who are aware of Dundee, but like other courses in Cape Breton, it has slipped below the radar a little, having been overshadowed by the publicity reaped upon the two Cabot courses in Inverness and Highlands Links in Ingonish Beach.
I immediately liked the Dundee course from the time I first started playing it back in the early 1980s. The resort and course were built by the Cape Breton Development Association. The course was designed by Canadian architect Robert Moote, who spent his early years in the business working with the famed Stanley Thompson.
Thompson was a master at designing courses through dense forest and wilderness, and you can see his influence in Moote’s work at Dundee.
The par-72 layout is routed over South Mountain and overlooks Bras d’Or Lake. The course measures only 6,384 yards from the blue or back tees, and down to 5,175 yards from the most forward tees, but it plays longer because of the uphill terrain on a number of holes. There are four sets on tees at each hole, so you can pick your comfortable distance or do as I like to do, and mix them up.
The par-72 Dundee layout is routed over South Mountain and overlooks Bras d’Or Lake.
The late Terry Burns was resort manager and head golf professional and course superintendent when we first started going to Dundee for our annual summer family vacation. The present resort hotel had not been built at that time. We rented one of the several cottages on the property and enjoyed the pool and course.
I first met Terry when he was head professional at Truro Golf Club before his stint at Dundee. My last encounter with him was his last day on the job before his retirement as general manager and club professional at Le Portage in Cheticamp. We played 18 that day.
In addition to teaching and managing, Terry also designed courses such as my home course in Brookfield, just south of Truro.
I recently read an article based on an interview with Terry in 2011. He was asked of all the courses he had played during his career, which were his favourites. He named a few, mainly in Nova Scotia, and said many courses in Nova Scotia were around water, something I think he enjoyed because he also liked to sail. So his answer was quite fitting on the courses he liked: “It’s not just playability, it’s the vistas,” he said.
Terry’s words run so true at Dundee.
Terry Burns is all smiles in this 1990s photo, as he collects the Dundee Sailing Cup, as the first mate aboard ‘Tir Ard Nighean’. He oversaw a significant expansion of the Dundee Golf & Country Club in the mid-1980s. He died in 2018. The Notebook photo
With the Bras d’Or Lake at your back, the first hole is uphill and from then fairways can be on a sidehill, some flat and others downhill. From several fairways and tee areas, you get great visuals of the Bras d’Or, an overwhelming display of those vistas Terry talked about.
The elevation changes throughout the course are dramatic. One of my favourite holes that truly reflects that terrain is the seventh, a par-3 of 154 yards from the white tees. My guess is the drop from tee to green is in the range of 60 to 70 feet, maybe more. It’s one of those holes you would like to have a bucket of balls and just hit balls into the blue sky and let them drop to the green all day.
The hilly location of the course is also very much reflected in the contours on the large greens. Depending on the location of your ball, the breaks to the hole can be more than you might expect.
Dundee Resort and Golf Club, which is comprised of a 60-room hotel, 38 cottages, the golf course, and other amenities like pools, restaurants, pub, outdoor activities, etc., had been in the MacAulay family (owner of Cape Breton Resorts, Baddeck) for years until it was sold in 2017 to businessman Sonny Grewal and his business partner and brother Sumer.
When Grewal purchased the property, there were several changes and improvements in the first year. The main lodge saw some upgrades to rooms, conference areas, and the front lobby.
Dundee Resort & Golf Course is on the shores of West Bay, Bras d’Or Lake.
In 2019 the exteriors of all 38 cottage units were painted and each had metal roofs installed. The main lodge also had the exterior painted and the roof repaired. The golf course received many upgrades, including new golf carts, new batteries for existing carts, and much-needed course maintenance equipment.
The big project of 2019 was a new pavilion to host weddings and all other events.
In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, plans for renovations have continued which include interior repairs to the cottages such as new ceilings, flooring, and painting.
Reports I have received say the course was in very good condition in 2021.
