Golf just published an article detailing the six different types of golf courses. We searched our guide to provide examples of these types of courses in the United States.
Links Courses originated in the UK and are simply the sandy wasteland along the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel, and the Atlantic Ocean “linking” the agricultural land to the seas. Many people favor the courses in Bandon Dunes as the best example of U.S. links courses, but traditionalists point to this relic on Cape Cod as classic links.
Parkland Courses are simply layouts which are routed through fairways lined with trees for the most part. It’s the predominate type of layout in the U.S. and is easy to find in every state. While unusually, we don’t have a golf course named parkland in the guide, we do have one called Treetops!
Heathland designs are sometimes referred to as inland links in the U.K. They tend to be wide open featuring slight fairway undulations with very few trees, but with fairway bordered by heather, fescue, and gorse among other gnarly, undesirable grasses and shrubs. There’s very few heathland courses in the U.S. but Tom Doak designed one in Myrtle Beach, and there’s one in Bandon, just not at the Bandon you’re thinking of.
Sandbelt courses tend to be in or near Melbourne, Australia and are are on a deep sand belt featuring undulating surfaces and quick draining soils. There’s a few examples in the U.S., maybe in the most unlikely of environs such as this course in Oklahoma and this Nick Faldo design in the Palm Springs area.
Stadium Courses originated by PGA Tour Commissioner Dean Beaman with the TPC Sawgrass in Port Vedra Beach, Florida in 1980. The elements of a TPC course were to provide spectators with advantageous viewing areas with challenging design standards to the players. Today, there are 33 TPC Stadium courses in the U.S., this course in Arizona may be the most notable if only for the spectacle of its 16th hole!
Par 3 and short courses seem to be the rage today since they take less time to play, are maybe more enjoyable to the masses, and they provide ample opportunities for elusive hole-in-one. We profile a number of great par 3 and short courses in our guide, but our favorite is this one in the Palm Beaches of Florida on the Atlantic where Sam Snead famously lost to an Hall of Fame LPGA member Louise Suggs.