I don't think it sounds cheesy, in fact there are tons of people who play golf (or at least only get into it) for the business and networking aspects of it. The difference is that building rapport with the upper class is probably seen as self-serving while building rapport with the lower class is maybe construed as altruistic, noble, self-sacrificing? It really comes down to common courtesy; if you are pleasant to rich upper class people it can be dismissed as sucking up; if you treat people in the lower class the same way, there's less room to dismiss it as anything but genuine niceness.