The local golf culture is embryonic. 99% of golfers on these courses are foreigners, mainly northern Europeans, Brits, Germans, Swedes, and their ilk.
Up until 1994 there were exactly two golf courses in the country, a little nine holer near Istanbul and another inside the U.S. military base at Incilik, on the south eastern coast. So there simply wasn't any opportunity for people to pick up the game until very recently.
Curiously, they do breed some competent greenkeepers. All the courses are maintained by Turks, and the standard is generally as good as your average resort course in the U.S. There are no schools for this in Turkey, the guys learn English and study abroad.
There are also one or two excellent Turkish construction superintendents there, who have honed their skills doing one project after another for professional architects.