what I never got is why golfers and golf course management companies are obsessed with sticking their courses right in the middle of cities. It makes sense that they’d want it to be easy to travel to the course. But golf originated as a rural game that people played on the treeless rolling hills of eastern Scotland. So, why not continue that? There’s plenty of space available outside cities, especially in the US, and to me it just makes sense to put golf courses there.
Like there’s a golf course right in the middle of the town I live in and it’s just such a nuisance for everybody. It’s next to a freeway too so I can’t imagine it’s very pleasant to play on it. It blocks so many roads and is right in the middle of an area that is almost overflowing with housing necessity. There’s another one that serves my town but it’s on the outskirts, probably a 20 minute drive or 45 minutes by bus. As far as I can tell, it’s never really upset anybody, not nearly as much as the one right in the middle.
My city has a few old golf courses, but they were literally built before the surrounding areas eventually got developed. I suspect a lot of the golf courses you’re talking about originally were on the outskirts of populated areas, until population expanded past them. At that point, they might not want to move.