Aye and no. Don't get me wrong, golf courses are as you say fertiliser polluted and lacking in biodiversity. But the rough, surrounding the whole course, and the woods they're often placed in certainly resemble nature. There's still birds, foxes, squirrels, etc, going about.

Certainly in Scotland at least, which is my only personal experience of courses. And being the home of golf I don't think it's disingenuous for me to use that as a basis for the claim.

I have seen videos and pictures of courses in places like Florida though and if a Scottish course is a tragedy of nature, a Florida course is an abomination.