In the post below, a golf course architect mentioned stripes vs. the light/dark mowing pattern. The L/D pattern fits old classic courses because up until the late 1980s, there was no lightweight fairway mower that would allow one to mow stripes. The mower above, the Jacobsen F-10, was in it's hey day in the 1970's. Well before that, Superintendents used teams of horses or mules to pull fairway reel gang mowers. At Highlands CC, a Wiley's Jeep was used to mow fairways well into the 1960s. Again, this didn't give you the option to mow stripes. Stripes came about in the 1980's as a fad. Augusta National helped start this but eventually backed off of it and went to mowing everything one direction once striping became mainstream. All this said, many old historic clubs mow the fairways with the L/D pattern do give it that old time nostalgic feel. However, this is simply a preference with many arguing one way or another. I personally appreciate the old look but don't have strong feelings on it one way or another. When superintendents get carried away with striping, I do think it begins to look a little lame. If fairways are striped, I'd just assume the roughs not be striped. When tees, fairways, roughs and approaches are all striped, it becomes sensory overload, in my opinion.