Eh I like to take the George Carlin approach to golf courses they're large swaths of land that take a lot of chemicals, and water to maintain by cheap labor hidden just far enough away so rich fucks can hit a tiny white ball with a metal stick into a plastic cup.
I'll agree that overall golf courses aren't the source of the problems, but they're the distillation of how our society is structured to how so many resources and exploited labor go into maintaining the wealthy's way of life.
Not sure about the US, but here in Australia many golf courses are built on flood plains where regular development would not be permitted. Still not nearly as beneficial as native bushland would be, but not as much of a "waste of space" as many tend to believe.