The British Open was on television this morning and the announcers referred several times to it being a links course.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never played on a true links course. I’ve played on a few courses that claim to be links, call themselves “links-style,” or even have the word links in their name.
The term links derives from the Old English word hlinc, meaning rising ground or ridge and refers to sandy areas along a coast. True link courses are mostly found in Scotland, Ireland and England. The course must be along the coast with sandy soil underneath.
Links golf is where the game was founded — the sandy soil was perfect for the game and not much good for anything else. The land wasn’t of any use for agriculture, so some other use needed to be found for it. The sandy soil drains well, keeping the ground firm — which is good for a golf course.
If you’ve watched the Open, you can see the course has plenty of dunes and pretty much no trees, and the bunkers are pot bunkers, not the larger, sprawling “American” style bunkers. And this morning’s round made it apparent, maybe because of the lack of trees and being by the water, wind plays a big factor on these courses.
I read somewhere that some golf course designers are starting to try to replicate some of the features on their newer courses on land that, technically, doesn’t meet the definition of links.
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