Mike, Excellent topic.
One of the things,especially coinciding with Tom's excellent verse is that especially with Ross courses, the encroachment of rough into areas that clearly weren't prescribed as such.
I know the first excuse, and sometimes a viable one, is that a lot of fairway rough and trees were added to protect neighboring golf holes. Meanwhile the fairway shrunk and the fairway bunkers got smaller and soon you have a bunker that is now close to the middle of the cart path that has been added. It's evolution at its worst.
Lu Lu Temple #1 & 7 is a prefect point in example. Thanks to some idiot that didn't bring his camera that day, I don't have any pictures of the club. I regret that, because Lu Lu is certainly worthy of the regard for their attempts to reclaim the course and as Tom has pointed out, make the fairways wider to the point that the rough can accurately sentence penalty for a bad shot.
#1 & 7 are jointly connected, and at one time in-between the holes existed fairway bunkers that not only guarded play, but sentenced penalty for being there. Bill Vostinak and myself took notice of this while looking for one of my errant scrubs in the trees while on #7. Seeing the dead carcass of bunkers in there was needless to say, "Less then inspiring."
The 1st green is blinded on its left entrance, so playing the entire left side to the hole was an option for a higher-handicap player, it still wasn't the quickest way to the hole. Certainly the right side was much more daring with its out of bounds glaring on the right for those who dared off the tee, furthering itself as it gets closer to the open entrance to the green.
The importance of recovering these areas is just so glaringly evident, and it is hard to beleive that so many don't or can't simply because they can't fathom cutting down trees or worse--having to cut more grass.
It is ultimately "Design By Maintanence."
I think it should be the other way around.
Credit Ron Forse with Jim Nagle for also furthering my education by sending me aerials of Lu Lu Temple, further corrupting my mind. I see this stuff and I get just as excited as they do in their attempts to recover it.