I found "safety issues" a little weird....
I think it's safer if you have parallel fairways where you can see each other... where you might wait a minute if somebody is in the middle bunkers and you don't feel comfortable driving, compared to a situation where there's a line of trees and you can't see if somebody is there.
It's like the distance between greens and tees, in Scotland, you see tee shots over the corner of a green, people just use their judgement and wait... but that's not what a lawyer would say
Technically, The Old Course is probably the most unsafe course in the world... connected parallel fairways where everybody is playing in the middle, blind tee shots, crossing holes, people walking around, houses in the way, but I doubt there's more people getting hit by a golf ball on that course then anywhere else