The meaning of 'links

[David_Tepper]

The current issue of travelgolf.com has an interesting article on the meaning of "link." More fuel for the fire. The link is:
www.travelgolf.com/departments/clubhouse/links-golf-meaning.htm

[Forrest Richardson]

The word links comes from the Old English hlincas, meaning “ridges.” The Scottish term links came to mean the undulating sandy ground near a shore, which was full of ridges of windswept and hills formed by the forces of the weather and sea. In no other language is there a word to define, with such precision, this distinctive form of land.

[from Routing the Golf Course]

[TEPaul]

Forrest:

I thought original "links" were formed by alluvial deposits out of rivers onto the area bordering the seashore. I'm not too up on that type though. The only ones I'm familar with are from Jimmy Dean on the meat shelf at the supermarket.

[Forrest Richardson]

I think that is where the receding tide part comes in. Rivers...receding tides....similar or even one in the same if one looks at it from a 1000 year perspective. The necessity of a river to form linksland is, in my opinion, too limiting to suggest the river be present. Nearby? Yes. As it was the relationship of the sea with debris from inland points which accounted for much of the vevegation which took hold there. But, with all (most!) inland points being upstream of the sea, we have the effect of a "river" even without a formal river. History suggests the land was "the land with ridges by the open sea".

[TEPaul]

Forrest said:

"The necessity of a river to form linksland is, in my opinion, too limiting to suggest the river be present. Nearby? Yes. As it was the relationship of the sea with debris from inland points which accounted for much of the vevegation which took hold there."

I think that's the point about the river factor on the best of the linksland. Most of us today probably think of the dunes of the linksland that were basically the natural percursor of the architectural bunker feature.

But the river and the alluvial deposits it dumped inside the dunes were probably almost more important to the beginning of golf in that linksland atmosphere because the richness of the river's alluvial deposits made the soil structure possible for the unusual grasses to grow that became what evolved into the natural "fairgreens" (with the dunes between them and teh sea) which made the playability of the ball more possible in a natural state (way before toros obviously). Back in those dark ages the winter was the ideal time to play as the grass wasn't really growing.

That latter remark probably even has some application to the cute story of the difference between the American superintendent and the Australian Sand Belt or Scottish superintendent. The American super concentrates on making grass grow and his Australian and Scottish counterparts concentrate on stopping the grass from growing!

[Forrest Richardson]

The element of the river is one of "when" and "where". Linksland may have been formed by an ancient river, and even one nearby, but not directly on a site.

The sausage you mentioned — is this a new slang to describe a horrid bunch of mixed up holes and features, but with enough seasoning and the right sauté to make it, well, good?

[ForkaB]

Tom P

The best linksland comes from former beaches, not ex-alluvial plains.  The agronomic irony of the best linksland is that--just as for land on which great wine is grown--"the poorer the soil the better the crop."  It is not that the soil has more nutrients, it is that it has less.  Plant physiology and drainage are the keys to this conundrum in both cases.

Now if we could just find a way get a few hectares of Gerwurtztraminer to grow on the Pilmour Links.........

[TEPaul]

Rich said;

"Tom P
The best linksland comes from former beaches, not ex-alluvial plains.  The agronomic irony of the best linksland is that--just as for land on which great wine is grown--"the poorer the soil the better the crop."  It is not that the soil has more nutrients, it is that it has less.  Plant physiology and drainage are the keys to this conundrum in both cases."

Rich;

On the face of that statement I think I might completely disagree with you. I'm no agronomist but will try to provide various material that contradicts what you just said. The fine grasses of the original natural "swards" of the natural and pre-architectural linksland was inside the dunes that bordered the sea (all very sandy obviously).

But the natural swards (the fine grasses on the inland side of the sandy dunes) was enhanced and made possible by alluvial deposits out of the rivers to the sea in and around the linksland.

I don't believe it's really possible for the fine grasses of the original natural swards to grow in a medium of just sand. They need more nutrients than that and the alluvial deposits from the rivers bringing to and dumping nutrients in those natural swards provided that growing medium. That's my understanding from what I've read and I'll see if I can provide that and quote it.

Some may have thought what you said there is true. Macdonald may have even believed that at NGLA originally. At first he tried to grow grass in a medium of just sand and had at least one total agronomic failure early on probably just because of that. Then he came to realize (perhaps with some assistance from Piper and Oakley) that the sand had to be mixed with a better growing medium to provide both necessary nutrients but also and perhaps more importantly to provide a better soil structure to stop water from draining immediately through the highly permeable sand thereby failing to provide the grass the necessary retained moisture.

The agronomy of original NGLA grew for a while but would eventually just burn up and die. It needed more structure or body to provide a perched water table and that's what the mixed medium provided. Probably not that different from the alluvial deposits of soil and nutrients the rivers provided inside the dunes to the original swards of early linksland golf.

[Forrest Richardson]

You are both correct. To a degree. When means actually, you are both incorrect. So there.

When plants die they form what we call organic material — fertilizer. As swards of grasses were cultivated and nurtured by man the process began to feed on itself. As turfgrass dies — and about 1/3 of the plant dies per year — it leaves in its wake this needed material. This happening fosters more growth in areas with less fertilizer (organic material) as the wind and water carries this "free" organic material from area to area. The footsteps of man, animals, rivlets of water, wind, mix of sand, etc., are all factors.

The best soils to grow turfgrass are sand-based. Today we greatly accelerate the process — adding organics (just the right amount) at the beginning and, of course, adding water nd fertilizer as needed.

But and area too saturated with organics will not provide a long-term base for good turfgrass. It will turn to muck. This is where the sand comes in, continually allowing materials to pass and the plant to breathe.

[ForkaB]

Tom

You are partly right, which is quite some accomplishement for you!  Perhaps all the intellectual exercise and stimnulation you are getting in your debate with Paul Turner about the origin of Pine Valley is doing you some good!  Fine links grasses probably did come from nearby estuaries (i.e. the Eden River in St. Andrews, the Dornoch Firth, etc.), but these esuatries wer only peripheral to the links land, and not a central part of it (in a future golfing sense).  The conventional theory (Sir Guy Campbell, et. al.) is that these fine grasses (and other coarser ones) were carried to the proper (and originally barren) linksland by nesting birds through their guano.  Obviously, this is where that scholar Sam Snead got his theory that the Old Course was full of shit.......

PS--I think NGLA's early problems were possibly cuased by the fact that they are not situated on linksland.  That other noted scholar, redanman, would call the course NG(not)LA if he wished to be fair-minded......

[TEPaul]

Rich and Forrest:

When you say a sand based enviroment is the best for golf's agronomy, either naturally as the original natural swards and the more recent medium such as original NGLA I think you have to qualify that. Certainly a sand based enviroment is great for natural drainage but certainly more than just that is needed such as a nutrient based medium and some body or structure to the sand base.

The agronomy of both original NGLA and also some areas at Pine Valley had very sandy natural composition but the fact of NGLA was it basically drained too well through just sand. That didn't allow for the necessary water retention to support good golf agronomy and they had an almost total failure.

We get this from contempraneous correspondence between the Wilsons and Piper and Oakley discussing Macdonald's early problems at NGLA and that was the problem. Disagree with that fact if you like but that's what happened.

The same was true to a degree at Pine Valley but actually it worked out to their surprise when they chose option A to lay a soil medium (humus) on top hoping it would filter into the pure sand instead of option B which was to tear up the constructed fairways and start all over again.

In other words the sand base was so porous the humus medium filtered in far better and quicker than they expected it would and gave the soil both the necessary structure to create better water retention as well as the improved growing medium.

[paul cowley]

   -rom my observations,linksland occurs in a riverine/estaurine environment when lighter,sandy soils ,exposed at low tide ,blow back to -orm dune ridges.

  [please excuse the -act that my - key[as in -uck] is missing]

   these lighter soils,though low in nutrient value,are ample
   -or the various grasses that grow there.

   just an observation..........

[Forrest Richardson]

Think of golf agronomy as if you were making chili. Add even the slightest bit too much jalapeño and you either (1) have to start over, or (2) make double the amount.

Same with humus (organic) material. If even the slightest bit is added or acumulated one has to go through the process of opening up the soils and removing "muck" so the roots can breathe. This, in essence, amounts to "making double the amount".

The reason we say this is because today we can very reasonably add fertilization to sand bases and, with 1.3 of the root of the plant (grass) dying each year, viola! — we have our needed organic material. (I very rarely use peat or organics for this very reason, even in greens construction.)

So, bottom line — sand is the perfect medium for golf in many ways. It drains well, which we want. It can be flushed to get rid of salts. And it can be tweaked as needed with our modern fertilization. Too tight of soils (clays and especially organic soils) are the first to fail. They simply are fickle when it comes to growing a consistent turfgrass.