Artistic mowing. Its grass, just cut it. Don't walk mow approaches and tees because you like little stripes, don't get all anal trying to line up all the stripes, just cut the grass in the most efficient manner. I never cease to be amazed about the importance some put on mowing patterns. For heavens sake, we're playing golf, not checkers.
The pursuit of definition. This height of cut, then this, then that, fwy, step cut, semi, first cut, second cut, primary rough, approach, collar, tee, green,...seriously, how many heights of cut do we need to play the game? Don't define everything, blend it.
Bunker edging. This obsession with razor sharp bunker edging is nothing more than adding huge amounts of labor for no positive benefit. Everyone is always talking about how expensive bunkers are to maintain, how about using some common sense instead of trying to show off how good you are with an edger?
To me, all the above is associated with "fine" turf management when in actuality its anything but that.
Some day I hope we look back and laugh at all the time and money spent tying to make a course look “high end”.