What is the meaning of a "links course"?

Question

Excuse my ignorance, I have recently taken up golf after hanging my rugby boots up and love the game. . . i read alot of magazines and have often wondered what qualifies a course to be classified as a "links" course. . . and any suggestions to getting my handicap down . . . just kidding..... practice and lessons from a pro should help.merry christmas all :)

Answer 1

Links courses are typically courses that utilize the natural terrain primarily in coastal areas. In addition, a true links course goes out and back for the entire 18 holes; there is no "turn" after the 9th hole.

Answer 2

Course design has gone through several phases. Initially, courses were just layed out using the contours of the land. Essentially putting a hole where nature allowed a hole to be. The very oldest courses in Europe are this way.

The next generation of course designers built courses that they dreamed up. No amount of land, sea, or rock would prevent them from building these courses. So, using the new tool called a bulldozer, massive amounts of land could be moved to build an artificial landscape as the designer saw fit.

Phase three is the more modern "enlightened" approach where once again minimal impact on nature is encouraged, while some 'manipulation" here and there is also needed in order to make the course fair and visually appealing.

Answering your question directly.

Links courses are generally on sandy/low but sometimes hilly windy plots of land with few if any trees. This type of course is wide open, no blind shots behind stands of trees, large hills, etc. The game is played lower in altitude to stay out of the wind, and bump and run is the name of the game. The holes are "linked" together as well as being a loop (out and in) making a LINK in a chain. The latter not being very practical most of the time now when you consider the cost of real estate.

Answer 3

not the least bit ignorant dont be hard on youself ,the game is hard enough . a links course is only found on the british isles . right beside the ocean . very very old course st andrews most known . mother nature designed these courses . and time and location make them difficult . you may have heard of links courses in other parts of the world , misleading fact the proper term for these is links style courses since they are man made and well grommed . there will never be another links course just links styled . best advice to start golf . learn the game from the hole backwards to the tee 6 foot turf mat . glass cup putting cup little space base ment place pice tape straight line . hit a few putts daily . during the winter . since you played rugby try stretch exercises not neccasary but your legs nay feel rooted to the ground . swing club waist high to waist high feet together . see a pro and enjoy

Answer 4

A links course is a golf course built on sandy soil, near a seaside area and usually treeless.

Answer 5

I believe the following are characteristics of links-style courses:

-- Hilly terrain, including possibly the fairways

-- Limited or no trees (although there can be shrubs)

-- Limited or no lakes

-- Plenty of sand traps

Links-style courses are common in the British Isles, especially in Scotland.  However, they can potentially be built anywhere -- there is one several miles from my house in Washington state.

Answer 6

A Golf Links is a golf course on Links land.

Links land is the grassy area just past the high tide mark where shepherds used to graze their sheep many years ago in Scotland.

This is where the term Links comes from and should only be classed as a links course if it is constructed on Links land.

Ali T

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Answer 7

Links Is What Refer To All Courses, For Example; "Yesterday I Was On The Links".  Its Actual Meaning Is A Course Near The Water(Seaside) That Has Sand(Not The Traps), Rolling Hills And Not Many Trees. Links Basically Means, Terrain Links The Sea To The Sand To The Hills To The Mountains. Kinda g*y I Know But Thats What It Is In A Nutshell. Happy Holiday To You And Yours.

Answer 8

A links golf course, sometimes referred to as a seaside links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. The word comes from the Scots language and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes, and also sometimes to open parkland. It also retains this more general meaning in the Scottish English dialect. It can be treated as singular even though it has an "s" at the end, and occurs in place names that precede the development of golf, for example Lundin Links, Fife.

Many links – though not all – are located in coastal areas, on sandy soil, often amid dunes, with few water hazards and few if any trees. This reflects both the nature of the scenery where the sport happened to originate, and the fact that only limited resources were available to golf course architects at the time, and any earth moving had to be done by hand, so it was kept to a minimum.

At Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh, Scotland, the course (a considerable distance from the coast) is still used for pitch and putt golf, and boasts a sign erected by the City Council which asserts that golf may have been invented there.

The challenges of links golf fall into two categories. Firstly the nature of the courses themselves, which tend to be characterised by uneven fairways, thick rough and small deep bunkers known as "pot bunkers". Secondly, due to their coastal location many links courses are frequently windy. This affects the style of play required, favouring players who are able to play low accurate shots. As many links courses consist literally of an "outward" nine in one direction along the coast, and an "inward" nine which returns in the opposite direction, players often have to cope with opposite wind patterns in each half of their round.

Links courses remain most common in Ireland and also in the United Kingdom, especially in Scotland. The Open Championship is always played on links courses, even though there are some celebrated courses in the United Kingdom which are not links, and this is one of the main things which differentiates it from the three major championships held in the United States. There are also some well known links courses in other countries, including these courses in North America: Pebble Beach Golf Links (on the Pacific Ocean), Whistling Straits in Wisconsin (on Lake Michigan), Seaside Golf Course and Ocean Forest Golf Course (on Sea Island, Georgia), Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Oregon, and Shinnecock Hills (between Peconic Bay and Shinnecock Bay) in Southampton, New York, all in the U.S.; and, in Canada, Harmon Seaside Links (in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador),

Links courses tend to be on, or at least very near to, a coast, and the term is typically associated with coastal courses. However, links conditions can be duplicated on suitable ground, even hundreds of miles or kilometres inland. One especially notable example of an inland links-style course is Sand Hills Golf Club, a much-acclaimed early-2000s layout in the Sand Hills of Nebraska.