What Is a Links Golf Course?
Updated May 2026
A true links golf course is built on sandy coastal land, has few or no trees, and plays firm and fast because the turf sits on naturally draining dunes rather than irrigated soil. That's the strict definition. Almost every course that slaps "Links" onto its name doesn't actually meet it — which is exactly the part most golfers never get told.
Key Takeaways
- A true links course needs three things together: coastal location, naturally sandy soil, and fescue or bent turf that drains fast enough to play firm.
- According to True Links, a survey book by Malcolm Campbell and George Peper, only 246 courses worldwide meet the full criteria — most of them in Scotland, England, and Ireland.
- Golf writer Tim Gavrich has argued the "links" label gets misapplied roughly 99% of the time it shows up in a course's marketing name.
- Links terrain is treeless by nature, not by design, because it's usually the exposed strip of dune land between farmland and the sea — trees never grew there in the first place.
- The firm ground and constant wind are what actually separate links play from parkland golf, more than the coastline itself does.
What Makes a Course a "True" Links Course?
The word "links" isn't decoration — it's a specific piece of geography. It comes from the Old English/Scots term for the rumpled strip of dune land that sits between a beach and the more fertile ground further inland, land too sandy and salt-blown to farm but perfect, it turned out, for golf. Early Scottish courses at places like St Andrews were built directly on that linksland because it was the only ground nobody wanted for anything else.
For a course to earn the label honestly today, three things have to line up at once:
- Coastal siting — the course sits on or immediately behind actual dune land, not just "near water."
- Sand-based soil — the ground underneath is genuinely sandy, which drains fast and lets the ball run instead of plugging into soft turf.
- Fescue and bent grasses — the tough, low-nutrient native grasses that evolved to survive in sandy, salty, wind-scoured ground, mowed tight enough to stay hard underfoot.
Miss any one of those and you've got a good course, maybe even a coastal one, but not a links. It's a narrower definition than most of the loose golf terminology golfers throw around, and that precision is the whole point. That's why Pebble Beach, for all its reputation, isn't technically a links — several holes run through coastal forest, and the soil doesn't have the sand content to play truly firm.
Why Do So Many Courses Call Themselves "Links" That Aren't?
Because the word sells. "Links" has become shorthand for tradition, authenticity, and old-world golf, so developers slap it on inland courses with a couple of open, treeless holes and call it a day. Golf writer Tim Gavrich, who's written specifically about this, put the misuse rate at something like 99% of the time the word gets used in a course's actual name — which tracks with how often you'll drive past a "such-and-such Links" that's really just a housing-development course with a few wide-open fairways and no ocean for a hundred miles.
The count that keeps this honest is the one from True Links, the survey book by Malcolm Campbell and George Peper: 246 courses worldwide, full stop, meet the real criteria. Most sit in Scotland, England, and Ireland, with smaller pockets in places like the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, and South Africa where the coastal geology happens to match. That's it. Everything else calling itself links golf is borrowing the word, not the land.
None of that makes the imitators bad courses — plenty of "links-style" American designs (think open Sandhills-region layouts) genuinely play firm and windy and honor the concept in spirit. But spirit isn't the same as soil.
How Does the Ground Game Actually Work on Links Turf?
This is the part that actually changes how you play, more than any postcard photo does. Because the ground drains so well and the turf gets mowed tight, a links fairway is hard underfoot in a way most inland courses never are. A ball that would stop dead on soft parkland grass will skip, bound, and keep rolling on links turf, sometimes 20 or 30 extra yards past where it first lands.
That changes strategy at almost every level:
- Low, running approach shots often beat high, spinning ones, because there's nowhere soft for a spinny ball to grab.
- Landing a shot well short of the green and letting it release is a legitimate, sometimes preferred, play — the classic "bump and run."
- Putters come out from well off the green surface on firm turf, a shot Americans sometimes call a Texas wedge, because rolling it is more predictable than a chip that might skid on hardpan.
- Uneven, humpy fairways mean good drives can get unlucky bounces and mediocre ones can get lucky ones — a randomness parkland golf mostly designs away.
If you've only played irrigated inland courses, the first time a links approach shot lands 15 feet short of the pin and rolls the rest of the way there, it genuinely reprograms how you think about a green.
How Much Does Wind Actually Change Links Golf?
A lot — arguably more than the sand does. Links courses sit exposed on open coastline with no trees to break the wind, so it's rarely absent and often the dominant factor in how a hole actually plays. The same par 4 can play like a mid-iron approach one day and require a fairway wood into the green the next, purely based on which way the wind's blowing that afternoon.
That's why links golf rewards a low, controlled ball flight over a high, pretty one — a knock-down 7-iron that stays under the wind is often the smarter play than a full, high-spinning shot that a crosswind can turn 15 yards offline. It's also why club selection on a links round has almost nothing to do with the yardage number on the card and everything to do with what the flag and the grass are doing right now.
Links vs. Parkland vs. Heathland — What's the Difference?
These three terms get blurred together constantly, so it's worth separating them plainly:
- Links — coastal, sandy, treeless, firm turf, wind-dominant. The original style, and the strictest definition.
- Parkland — inland, tree-lined, irrigated turf, softer ground. This is the style most golfers in North America actually grow up playing.
- Heathland — also inland, but on sandy, well-draining heath soil, with heather and gorse instead of ocean dunes. It plays firmer than parkland and shares some links-like bounce, without being coastal.
The short version: if a course has irrigation-dependent, soft green fairways lined by trees, it's parkland no matter what's painted on the clubhouse sign.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
- A golf course built on sandy, coastal dune land, with few or no trees and firm, fast-draining turf — the combination of location, soil, and grass type is what defines it, not just being near water.
- No. It's a spectacular coastal course, but several holes run through forest and the soil doesn't have the sand content that a true links requires. It's often called a links because of its ocean setting, but it doesn't meet the geological definition.
- According to True Links by Malcolm Campbell and George Peper, 246 courses worldwide meet the full criteria, the large majority in Scotland, England, and Ireland.
- It's not a design choice — trees generally can't survive in the sandy, salt-exposed, wind-battered dune land links courses are built on, so the land was already treeless before a course was ever laid out on it.
- A links course meets the actual criteria: coastal, sandy soil, fescue/bent turf. A "links-style" course borrows the look — open, windy, minimal trees — without the underlying coastal geology, and is usually more accurate marketing than calling it a links outright.
- There's nothing to block it. No trees, no elevation changes to speak of, and open exposure to the coastline mean wind is a near-constant factor, often changing which club you'd hit into the same hole from one day to the next.