Ben Cowan-Dewar needed to see Castle Stuart. This was 2008, a year before Castle Stuart would open then go onto host four Scottish Opens and become a mainstay on most top-100 lists (it’s #51 on our most recent World 100). Cowan-Dewar admired Mark Parsinen’s work at Kingsbarns, and now Parsinen had partnered with Gil Hanse to build a new course atop dramatic dunes in the Scottish Highlands. Cowan-Dewar took Rod Whitman, architect of the soon-to-be Cabot Links in Cape Breton, to see what a successful, new public course in Scotland built by two North Americans could look like.
Fast-forward 17 years, and now Cowan-Dewar—after taking that inspiration back to Inverness, Nova Scotia to launch the Cabot golf brand, then subsequently owning four other properties—has taken over Parsinen’s vision for a second course at this Inverness, Scotland destination and opened Old Petty at Cabot Highlands. Parsinen suffered an unexpected stroke and died in 2019, leaving behind a legacy and a void at Castle Stuart that Cowan-Dewar is inspired to take over.
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“Mark was so brilliant and so scientific,” Cowan-Dewar said. “He had done all the elevations and focused on infinity greens, the attention to detail and the visuals. He also displayed all the same design principles that we agreed with, making it fun, making it playable, and making it a great test for the great golfer. So it’s a true honor because I was such a fan of Castle Stuart.”
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Your approach shot on the par-5 10th hole will likely be blind as you navigate a massive mound right of the green—with the coastline beckoning.
Jacob Sjöman
Cabot Highlands’ second course, Old Petty, designed by Tom Doak and his associate Clyde Johnson, opened for preview play this summer—and we got one of the first looks at the new design. It will be open officially in 2026.
Old Petty is quite different than Castle Stuart, which ascends up dramatic bluffs playing alongside cliffs right on the Moray Firth. The new Doak/Johnson design takes golfers inland with a routing that rolls gently over old farmland with mostly created features that feel like they’ve been there for hundreds of years. Most of the interesting visuals are internal at Old Petty, rather than its sister course, where the sea is often the focus (though don’t undersell the Moray Firth’s presence at Old Petty). As most Doak courses do, a premium on navigating some undulating green surrounds will be the key to scoring.
“That’s the cool thing about working in Scotland—the Scots don’t care as much about the views off the golf course as the Americans. They’re like, ‘If it’s a good golf course, it’s all that matters,’ ” Doak said. “That’s the most important audience to me. That [the Scots] don’t think, ‘Oh, those guys just built some American thing over here.’ “
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The 400-year-old castle first appears on the par-3 third hole, then is visible for most of your round.
Jacob Sjöman
Though this is a new course, the designers did a great job incorporating some external features that give you some historical context to where you are. A 400-year-old castle, actually named Castle Stuart, beckons on your left on the tee shot on the par-3 third hole (below video). And the castle is in view on the majority of the holes.
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An old, red bothy (meaning simple structure) sat on the property, and Doak and Johnson kept it right of the fifth green—a terrific risk-reward hole that offers a bail-out right if you don’t mind a blind shot over a massive bunker. And the bothy, which will double as a snack stand, sits just a few paces off the green. Also you’ll aim at a washed-up boat on the tee shot on the par-5 15th hole, a thrilling shot over water and sandscapes everywhere you look. The old castle is also a line off the tee.
Below is an on-the-ground look at the short par-3 sixth hole, with a putting surface inspired by the second green at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
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Lodging is coming next—the first five four-bedroom cottages, which will be reminiscent of the structures at Cabot Citrus Farms—were sold out before being made public. Nine more are next. Cowan-Dewar knows Cabot Highlands can be a hub for a fabulous golf holiday across the Scottish Highlands—with Royal Dornoch, Nairn, Brora, Skibo Castle, Moray all within about an hour.
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An old bothy has been renovated and incorporated as very much in play on a golfer’s approach to the fifth green. It also serves as a snack hut.
Jacob Sjöman
It’s a fitting homage to Parsinen’s vision. Cabot-Dewar recalled his first due diligence trip to see the land before acquiring it, and he took Doak along with him. He and Doak wanted to be sensitive about changing what Parsinen had first envisioned. But Parsinen’s old business partner, Dan Reiner, came out and was very enthusiastic and encouraging about Cabot’s potential in bringing Parsinen’s vision to life.
“Tom and I certainly felt that. It’s Scotland. You don’t want to build something that isn’t extraordinary,” Cowan-Dewar said. “Particularly when you’re given a coastal site in 2025, you don’t know how often we’ll see that again. The added pressure of having Castle Stuart being on the same property that’s so well-regarded, it was probably doubly pressure-filled. That was certainly our goal—to make sure Old Petty stood up to Castle Stuart. They are so similar in that they share the property, but like siblings, they’re kin but they’re remarkably different.”
Now, it is.
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