Canadian golf course cracks the top 20 in Golf Digest's world rankings

Each year Golf Digest magazine ranks the top 100 greatest golf courses to play on. In this year’s edition of the list, no fewer than six Canadian golf courses made the cut, with Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia ranking as the highest course in the country, holding the 19^th overall spot.

This year’s theme for the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses was proximity to the sea, meaning that any golf course inland or next to a lake or pond did not rank as highly as courses next to the ocean. Apart from the fact Cabot Cliffs is brand new, it’s those precious views of big blue water that stand out as the defining reason the course got the nod as Canada’s best. The 16^th hole is particularly beautiful as the green, bunkers and rough surrounding the flag sit on top of a cliff just a few feet above the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

The course was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, both of whom are from the southern United States. A glipse at the photos of this course show that the pair was able to capitalize on the amazing ocean cliffs and surrounding natural beauty that make Cabot Cliffs a work of art.

Not to be outdone, there are four other Canadian courses that made it onto the list including:

41. St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Etobicoke, Ontario.

66. National Golf Course Of Canada in Woodbridge, Ontario.

78. Memphrèmagog Golf Club in Quebec.

93. Cabot Links in Inverness, Nova Scotia.

Memphrèmgog Golf Club is the other new Canadian entry in the top 100. It’s been dubbed by many golf pundits as the "Augusta of Canada," which is a big complement considering Augusta, Georgia is home to one of the PGA’s four majors, The Masters. Cabot Links on the other hand benefits from being located close to its Cabot Cliffs cousin and takes full advantage of similarly amazing ocean views.

While the two courses in Ontario obviously don’t have the benefit of having an ocean nearby, St. George’s maintained its staying power on the list because of diagonally-traversed the valleys and plenty of forestry covering the land. National Golf Course of Canada on the other hand offers fast greens, challenging water hazards and double doglegs.

Golfers looking to take their game outside of Canada and experience some of the other top courses in the world are sure to find at least one on the list that's right for them, possibly at the top course on the planet, Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland, which ranked number four on last year’s list.

Pack your clubs and hit the links even if you can’t make plans to travel all around the world to play anyway. This year’s list proves there is a handful of world-class courses are available right here at home.