The definition of a links course fluctuates wildly depending on the golfer. Some apply the strictest criteria: hugging the coastline, built on the sandy terrain that links farmland to the sea, holes cut primarily by wind and saltwater. And there are those with looser parameters: few trees, some wispy fescue, occasional bagpipe music in the grill room.

In the U.S., where the vast majority of golf is played inland, the courses in the conversation could be divided primarily into two categories: those that play like a links, and those that at least look the part. Both have their appeal, but only one would allow you to attempt the ground game on display each year in the Open Championship.

Once you start playing the South Course, you’ll realize that all its right angles and parallel lines are less noticeable at ground level than from aerial views or diagrams in the yardage book. What is important isn’t the trigonometry of the various features. It’s their positions on each golf hole that make the difference. In carving this course out of a bland barley field, Dana Fry ran the risk of producing golf’s equivalent of a game of Checkers. But his brilliant bunker placement and green contours elevate Arcadia Bluffs South to a game of three-dimension Chess.