DEAR SUN SPOTS: I would like you to find out something for me. I did a lot of playing golf in my younger days, but now I watch it on TV.

Now the announcer keeps referring to golfers playing links golf. Could you please find out what links courses are as opposed to regular golf courses? They never explain it on any sports channel.

Thank you kindly. — No Name, Lewiston

ANSWER: Mr. Sun Spots, who is an avid golfer, says the response at golf.about.com, an edited version of which follows, is a good one. If you visit your local library and go to the website (http://tinyurl.com/csduclt), you can see photos of a real links course.

“Especially in the United States, the term ‘links’ is frequently misapplied. Links refers to a very specific type of golf course. But nowadays it is common for any golf course that is relatively treeless to call itself a links course. … Most American golfers — and I am one — have never seen a true links course except for the ones we see each year while watching the British Open.

“The British Golf Museum says that links are coastal strips of land between the beaches and the inland agricultural areas. This term, in its purest sense, applies specifically to seaside areas in Scotland.

“So ‘links land’ is where seaside transitions into farmland. Links land has sandy soil, making it unsuited for crops. Such land was often, in times past, thought to be worthless because it was not arable for crops.

“But back in the mists of Scotland, someone had the bright idea to start knocking a ball around that land, hitting it from point to point. And from those humble beginnings, links golf courses emerged.

“… Because they were built on narrow strips of land, links courses often followed an ‘out and back’ or ‘out and in’ routing. The front nine went out from the clubhouse, one hole stringed after another, until reaching the ninth green, which was the point on the golf course farthest from the clubhouse. The golfers would then turn around on the 10th tee, with the back nine holes leading straight back to the clubhouse.

“In modern terms, a links course is more broadly defined by Ron Whitten, the golf course architecture beat writer for Golf Digest, to include golf courses built on sandy soil (whether seaside or not) and that are buffeted by winds. Whitten says a links course must play firm and fast, with sometimes crusty fairways and greens that feature many knolls and knobs to create odd bounces and angles. And, of course, a links course, in Whitten’s definition, needs to be relatively treeless with a native rough that is tall and thick.”

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I am an avid Red Sox fan. I would like to know why the players do not have their names on the back of their uniform shirts only at away games. Thank you. — M. Morin, Livermore Falls

ANSWER: Sun Spots asked her newsroom colleagues in sports, who said there is no rule about names on uniforms, just tradition. They said that the Red Sox didn’t used to have their names on their away uniforms either, but that changed in the 1990s.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I would like you to help me say “thank you” to the person or persons who found my pearl bracelet in Rolandeau’s parking lot and turned it in. It is good to know there are still honest people out there. Bless you. — Donna Shields, Turner

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