Depends on the golf course but traditional links courses tend to be on sandy soil which isn't easy to cultivate either. They can easily be converted into farmland (and vice versa) in many cases since they do not have much built on them. (The UK as a whole varies a lot. Most of Scotland (and Wales) was never arable but most of England is– at least its south–because it's much flatter. In England, golf tends to be played by a narrower band of the population than Scotland too.)

I have mixed feelings about golf. I have never been able to play myself, but it keeps a lot of people happy, so I see it as an intangible like libraries or public parks. Golf courses are a lot easier on the eye than some alternatives, and function as green lungs in cities, and open spaces where people can exercise. One of my local golf courses has a healthy population of badgers and another has deer on it, so I don't see them as completely destructive. But like I say, it is not my thing, so on that level I feel shut out of it.

I think the main threat to arable land in Scotland right now is actually housing. We tend to build on the best land here, especially in areas such as East Lothian or the lower Clyde. We have miles of bland suburbia now. What some people have termed "slums of the mind".