On a windswept stretch of the Scottish Highlands, where the Moray Firth meets centuries of history, one of the world’s most eagerly awaited golf courses is finally ready to welcome the world.
Old Petty, the second course at Cabot Highlands and the latest creation from legendary architect Tom Doak, will officially open on May 15 — a moment that the global golf community has been anticipating since the project was first announced.
The opening marks more than just another fairway cut into the Scottish turf.
It represents the culmination of years of development, significant capital investment, and an architectural vision that, even in preview, has already earned the course a place among Scotland’s elite layouts.
A Ranking Before the Grand Opening
In what may be an unprecedented achievement in golf course history, Old Petty debuted at No. 34 in Golf World’s Scotland Top 100 rankings while still in a preview phase — before the course had even completed its inaugural full season.
The publication went further, suggesting Old Petty has the potential to climb into Scotland’s top 20 layouts, a trajectory that would place it alongside storied courses such as Royal Dornoch, Turnberry, and Muirfield.
The recognition came after a carefully curated preview period in August and September 2025, during which select golfers and industry insiders were granted early access to the course.
Their response — and the subsequent ranking — sent a clear signal that Old Petty is not merely a worthy addition to the Scottish links landscape, but a potential landmark in global golf architecture.
“The response during preview play exceeded our expectations. Old Petty was designed to work in harmony with this extraordinary landscape, and seeing golfers embrace it so enthusiastically is deeply rewarding.” — Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO & Co-Founder, Cabot
The Architecture: Doak’s Vision for the Highlands
Designed by Tom Doak — the architect behind revered courses including Pacific Dunes, Barnbougle Dunes, and Cape Kidnappers — alongside associate designer Clyde Johnson, Old Petty is a study in how great golf architecture amplifies, rather than imposes upon, a landscape.
The routing was conceived to let the natural drama of the Moray Firth coastline drive every design decision.
The course sits adjacent to the historic Old Petty Church, a centuries-old landmark that lends the layout its name and a profound sense of place.
From 13 of the 18 holes, players enjoy direct sightlines to Castle Stuart — the 400-year-old fortress that also gave the first Cabot Highlands course its name.
The relationship between old stone and new turf forms an aesthetic backbone that distinguishes Old Petty from virtually any course in the world.
The opening and closing holes criss-cross near the clubhouse in a deliberate theatrical gesture, creating the kind of electric atmosphere — watching other groups come and go — that defines the world’s most beloved courses.
It is a design sensibility rooted in the golden age of link architecture: minimal intervention, maximum emotion.
Investment, Development Challenges & the Cost of Getting It Right
Building a world-class golf course in the Scottish Highlands is not without its complexities.
The remote location of Cabot Highlands — outside Inverness in the northeast of Scotland — presents logistical challenges that more accessible destinations do not face.
Supply chains for construction materials must extend across significant distances, skilled labor pools are limited, and the extreme variability of Highland weather compresses working seasons in ways that would test any development team.
Cabot’s approach — common across its portfolio from Cape Breton to Cabot Saint Lucia — has been to treat timeline as subordinate to quality.
The decision to stage a preview period rather than rush to a grand opening reflects a philosophy that patient development yields a superior product.
The investment required to build and establish a course of Old Petty‘s caliber, including the conditioning time required to bring natural turf to true championship maturity in a coastal Scottish climate, is substantial — industry benchmarks for comparable destination courses typically range from £20 million to £40 million or more when infrastructure, landscaping, and resort integration are included.
The challenges of the site were also, crucially, its greatest asset.
The rugged topography, exposure to the Firth, and proximity to historic structures created the conditions for a routing that a more manicured or accessible location simply could not produce.
Doak and Johnson reportedly walked the land extensively before a single fairway was staked, a practice consistent with Doak’s documented philosophy of allowing the ground to dictate the game.
What It Means for Cabot Highlands — and Scotland
With Old Petty fully operational, Cabot Highlands now offers a two-course destination of rare depth.
Castle Stuart, which opened in 2009 and rapidly earned plaudits, including a European Tour host designation, provides the established championship pedigree.
Old Petty provides something complementary: a more intimate, exploratory experience shaped by centuries of natural and human history on the same ground.
Stay-and-play packages, bookable via cabothighlands.com, will allow guests to experience both courses during a single visit, staying in the property’s on-site cottages.
For golf travelers accustomed to making multi-destination pilgrimages across Scotland, the ability to play two courses of this caliber without relocating represents a significant convenience — and a powerful argument for the Highlands as a standalone bucket-list destination.
The broader implications for Scottish golf tourism are also meaningful.
The Highlands — long overshadowed by the Fife courses and the Ayrshire links belt in the imaginations of international visitors — have been steadily building a case for themselves as a world-class golf region.
Royal Dornoch remains the north’s crown jewel, but Old Petty’s arrival gives the region a second globally ranked reason to make the journey north of Inverness.
What’s Next for Cabot in Scotland
Cabot has not publicly disclosed specific expansion plans for the Highlands site beyond the opening of Old Petty, but the company’s pattern across other properties — incremental resort infrastructure investment following golf development — suggests that hospitality capacity, additional lodging, and ancillary amenities will continue to grow as demand matures.
Globally, Cabot has positioned itself as one of the premier forces in destination golf development, with a portfolio spanning Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saint Lucia, and beyond.
The success of Old Petty will inevitably strengthen the company’s hand as it evaluates future opportunities in the British Isles and elsewhere — a region where land capable of producing authentic links golf is finite, and increasingly coveted.
For now, however, the focus is squarely on May 15 and the golfers who will be among the first to play Old Petty in its full, mature incarnation.
They will step onto a course already ranked among Scotland’s finest — and, if early consensus holds, one destined to climb much further.