Golf was once a richmans game but

[bluedolphin]

now its played my millions of poor players.....does this mean that the play badly or they are financially challenged?

[Ewood27]

It means two things.  1) It now costs less to play golf, and 2) today's "poor" are infinitely better off than those who were poor a century ago.

[sugarmags]

It's more of a class structure thing.  In America, the only places to play golf were private golf courses.  You had to be a member of the country club, or the president of the local bank, or some high-ranking member of the town to gain a membership to a golf course.  It did cost a lot of money, and the gear is much more expensive (all those fancy clubs as opposed to a bat, ball and glove for baseball) but if you weren't the right sort, it didn't matter how much money you had.  You were NOT going to be invited to join the local country club or private golf course.

[sugarmags]

Con't.--Golf was also resented as a "rich man's game" because it was were the rich and well-connected got richer and more well-connected through their contacts at the country club.  The plebe couldn't join the old boys' club, so he had no chance to form the right relationships so he too, could become richer and have better connections.