Just like Augusta National revolutionized tournament golf by introducing things like the over/under scoring system, they also were the fist golf club to make striping turf popular. Above, you can see near perfect lines on the over-seeded bermudagrass tees at ANGC. The Bermuda is over-seeded with perennial ryegrass, which is easiest species to achieve those defined lines of light and dark. It’s the way the light reflects off the leaf blade that creates the visual effect. The light colored stripe is grass that is mowed in the direction going away from you while the dark stripe is mowed in the direction coming toward you. If you continue to mow the same lines over and over again every day, you achieve what superintendents call ‘burning in’ lines. Like I said above, referring to perennial ryegrass, some grass species stripe better than others while warm season grasses like Bermudagrass or Zoysiagrass don’t really stripe at all due to their growth habit. This is why stripes seem to be associated with northern US Open-like golf courses. As time went on, striped turf on golf courses became more mainstream. After all, you will naturally stripe a green when you mow it because that’s how you mow grass; down and back until the area is finished. In the late 1990’s ANGC started something new, when they started mowing fairways all one direction. This only works when you have enough mowers. At Highlands CC for example, it would be the most inefficient way to mow a fairway because we only have 2 fairway mowers out at any given time as opposed to 10 or more at ANGC. Not only do they mow in one direction, but they mow in the direction from the green to the tee. This essentially lays all the grass over in the direction you are hitting into. Their goal: to slow the golf ball down and reduce the amount of roll one gets. I’m not aware of any research that’s been done to confirm whether or not it works or to the extent it works. Regardless, it’s an interesting theory and one that very few facilities can pull off.