British Open: Why is the course so ugly?

Factual Questions
1

First, I’m not serious golf fan, and have watched very little golf on television. I’ll admit I’m generally ignorant of the sport.

However, while watching highlights of the British Open, I couldn’t help noticing that the course looked like shit. dead grass, high weeds (or maybe unmowed high grass) were all over the place.

I’ve played golf a few times, and have seen snippets of professional golf tournaments over the years, and generally, from what I’ve seen, the courses are usually well-manicured, green throughout, with nice trees between the fairways, etc.

I couldn’t help but notice that the few public golf courses I’ve played on were in MUCH better shape than the course the BO was played on.

So, my questions…

Is the BO held on the same course year after year? (I assume it is)

Why does it look like shit? (I’d hazard a guess that maybe there is a bit of tradition going on… It looked like shit 150 years ago when it wasn’t feasable to keep it in good shape, so it looks like shit today).

Obviously a prestigious tournament like the BO could afford to keep their course looking nice, so I assume there is a genuine reason for this.

2

Yep, cos it’s a links.

3

I am also not a golf expert, but I’ll set you straight on a couple of things. Firstly, The Open is not played on the same course from year to year; there are several courses on which it is played. Royal St George’s is one of them, and yes it has hosted the tournament in the past.

Second, it’s a links course. These tend to be a little more “wild” than your regular manicured course. The dead grass, high weeds etc etc are all part of the challenge. Even if it does look like shit. (Actually, I thought it looked quite nice, thanks in part to the decent summer we’re getting for once.)

4

When they first started showing the Masters from Augusta on British TV, the general reaction was “Why is it so lush?” and “Is that Astroturf?” While the British Open is always(?) held at links courses, British inland courses (e.g. The Belfry, Wentworth) tend to look pretty and manicured, much like US courses.

5

What is a links course?