Did Bandon bring Scotland to America? Did they drag Melvyn and the Fat Baldy Drummer and their kin here?
I don't think history has too much to do with a definition of a links. I am pretty sure that we have morphed the definition of links to be most any seaside, bluffs, either manufactued or natually sandy, on high or low dunesland, into the category of "links".
I'll stick with my own understanding of links, which is a land adjacent to water, estuary, etc., not fit for intense agriculture beyond gazing, typically sandy with enough fertility to allow it to be naturally grassy, generally windswept with interesting land formations occuring and changing in a natural state, and possibly said type of land that 'links' a toon to a beach or other access to the water.
To me, we should leave the designation 'links' back in the old country, where it has been called such authentically at a few places (this is where the history comes in) and move along and call the new courses designed on sandy, seaside, windswept, prairie, bluffs, dunesland and such, as such.
Bringing Scotland to America is like them having a bagpiper blow down the flag at the end of the day, quaint, characturization and faux imagery, but not really bringing Scotland to America. Even Craig Ferguson brought a hint of Scotland to America, then sent it back again when he took up American Citizenship.