Learning from Linksland

Abstract

Golf is a landscape game that originated on “linksland,” a particular type of Scottish landscape. The evolution of golf is about the dispersion of both a game and a landscape. This paper explores golf's migrations and changes in golf-course design as a prototypical example of universal design processes. Golf history forms a case study of design evolution in response to new environmental, cultural, and functional circumstances. Two course models, the linksland and the inland forest models, are examined. The struggle to adapt to new situations and the desire to retain elements of the basic golf-course ideal are ever-present—a perfect model of the magnetic push and pull of design tradition and innovation.