How many golf course type there are?

[andylo]

Just reading GD and Ernie saying Shinecock is almost like "link-type" course....

How many "type" of course are there?

And what is the difference between?

[McMw]

Two very basic desc...

Link's Style - British Open like (ie no TREES!) :lol: :lol:
and Shinnecock is almost like that in every respect...
St Andrews, Moonah, Port Kennedy,

Parkland Style - Augusta like (trees everywhere...)
Wentworth, Belfry, Augusta, Spyglass (sp?), Medianah, Brookwater...

[Fishman Dan]

You forgot;

Desert - rocks, lots of sand, 'browns' kept together using sump oil from dead Kingswoods.
Sydney - generally about par 62, parallel fairways with seedlings seperating them. Most common heard word is FORE!!

[Courty]

I was having this discussion recently with some playing partners. I was told that 'Links' courses were courses established utilising the natural contours and with minimal re-shaping, as opposed to any other type of course where land is reclaimed or big-ass earthmoving equipment moves in and drastically changes the profile.

The point being made was: The Links at Port Douglas is built to look like a traditional Links courses in the UK, but is not a genuine links course because it was manufactured to look that way...

Maybe golfer69 can shed some light on this one?

[goughy]

I also thought traditional links courses were seaside.

[Fishman Dan]

I also thought traditional links courses were seaside.

My thoughts were that it didn't have to be sea-side, but it was 9 (consecutive) away from the clubhouse, 9 back to the club house.

I think the more modern association is with rolling fairways, wild grass and bunkers. Isn't Hope Island regarded as a 'links-style' course?

[markTHEblake]

the definition of Links has been varied over time. It is often a word associated with any golf course in general now.

The word 'links' derives from the old English 'hlinc' meaning a ridge, a balk of land left unploughed. The reason that it was left unploughed was that it was poor in plant nutrients, unfit for cultivation and of commercial use only as pasture for sheep which can find sustenance in the shorter grasses. The links was probably regarded bymost people as wasteland.

p58. St Andrews Golf Links the first 600 Years. Jarrett, Tom.

The generally accepted golf term for links is land described above and also that lies between normal pasture land and the sea, like sand dunes and is typicall a narrow strip of only a few hundred yards wide.

[mike]

Jim would know...