Are either of the following statements true?
The rise in the popularity of golf in Scotland and Ireland was primarily a working class phenomenon.
The rise in the popularity of golf in England and the US was primarily an upper class phenomenon.
Bob
I'd suggest upper middle class rather than upper class in England. Though sometimes they hired Scottish professionals (eg Mungo Park, who did Alnmouth Village in 1869, the same year as Royal Liverpool) often skilled English gentleman amateur players who had played in Scotland and wanted the same thing at home, laid out courses themselves.
An example was Dr McCuaig, a prominent player in his day, who created the first course at Seaton Carew in 1876. One of his holes, Doctors, was so good that when a rather better-known medic turned architect, Dr MacKenzie, was called in to redesign the course nearly 50 years later he recommended that hole should be left as it was.
A little later Rye was created in the same way when a keen and proficient golfer wanted somewhere local to play when he wasn't attending to his legal practice. His name was Harry Colt, who was subsequently to give up the law and pioneer the profession of golf course architect.