fbd,
Even more so than bunker edges, the nature of fairway finish work has changed dramatically over the past twenty years ... all because of the golf cart.
On many older courses in well-drained soils, there are all kinds of little irregularities in the fairway surface. When we were building High Pointe years ago, we tried to leave in the fairways the same kind of things that were in the fairways at Crystal Downs ... but most of the customers hate it, because it makes the cart ride bumpy! And most golf course contractors today would never think of leaving the fairway like that ... they'll go over it with so many implements that it's perfectly smooth. There are no drainage and mowing hiccups, but also no little subtleties to affect your shot.
In contrast, one of the neatest things about the Old Course at St. Andrews is how crinkly it is around the greens ... sometimes your choice of shots around the greens is influenced by the fact that the mower missed a little low spot because of the ruggedness. (In the good old days there were always these imperfections, because sheep do not have drivers.)
High Pointe is just 14 years old (though it still seems like yesterday) and it is already desperately in need of restoration of its bunker edges ... the original course at Stonewall has lost a lot of this detail in ten years, too, so that the new course next door puts it to shame in the detail department.
Will their maintenance staff lose the detail on the new course eventually, too? Quite possibly so, but I'm still going to make the effort and hope that they will follow suit. I'm sure a lot of architects and contractors are resigned to less, and unfortunately, that may be a driving factor in a lot of what's being built nowadays.