Bill McBride,
Fairway lines, like green lines, move at an almost imperceptable pace.
It's rare indeed when that movement is noticed by the Staff, Super, Green Chairman and Golfers.
I'll bet you everything you own that you never detected when a fairway had moved an inch.
Probably even a foot.
It's a gradual process that goes unnoticed at virtually every club.
What's easy to notice is when the mowing pattern moves away from bunkers and creeks.
In most cases, over the last 50 years, that movement has been encouraged and promoted by the membership, who were desirous of creating a buffer of rough in the name of fairness.
In the UK penal features are intended to attract golf balls, in the U.S there's an element that wants a safety net to prevent same, ergo rough.
But, as it applies to fairway lines, I've seen them altered because some moronic chairman indiscriminately planted a tree and as that tree grew, so did it's drip line, and as the drip line expanded, staff riding the fairway mowers veered to avoid the limbs. And, in so doing, altered the fairway line, which went mostly unnoticed, because most related the fairway line to the drip line, so the two shifted in harmony and thus, no one noticed, except a few architectural buffs/geeks.
The second thing that happens at many clubs is that the position of Green Chair is a rotating position.
Just when a green chairman starts to "get it" his term is done and his replacement starts the learning curve all over.
Do you think an incoming Green Chair even knows where the fairway lines were 5 and 10 years ago.
Do you think he cares ?
Most incoming Green Chairs are told, as their first marching orders, "Make sure the course is in GREAT condition"