Soft parkland is a chess game, and rewards precision and strategy. Every shot reflects the skill and planning of the player, and the round is battle for every stroke gained.
Links golf is a game of poker, where strategy still matters and taking big gambles can pay off huge, but you have to pick your moments very carefully, because there’s always that bit of bad luck will show up here and there — a bad bounce or gust of wind — that will really shake up the leaderboard.
Surely if anything it is the opposite ? With a soft parkland course you can generally come in from any angle and the ball sticks where it lands. For sure, angles matter irrespective of what Erik says but you've still got a chance of getting it close. Put yourself in the wrong place on a links, even if you're on the fairway, and you are likely stuffed.
Niall
Agree. Matt, I find your skill/luck analysis intriguing, but golf is very elusive of putting into a 4 X 4.
Ira
It is exactly that you can stop the ball on the green, and have a fairly certain position from the rough to get on the green, that I compare it to a game of chess.
That is, it’s a perfect information game.
When we talk about links golf, often we’re talking about rough that could just as easily leave you sitting clean as it will leave you unplayable. We’re talking about short par threes where reaching the green is about judging the wind more than striking the face purely. It’s about playing a knockdown shot into a kicker because you are terrified to put the ball up in the air.
Imperfect information means risk, and risk means hedging, unless the benefit outweigh the risk in the long run.
You’re more likely to calculate the positive expected value of different shots on a links course than on parkland, where your only options are probably bomb and gouge or lay back and play in.