Hogan's alley - cutting a short walking path on the golf course?

Answer 1

Although attributed to Hogan, the answer below is more likely.

"In the days before hydraulics, superintendents would mow a tee box and then before progressing to the next one (or to the fairway), would have to take the mower out of gear, get off the mower, manually lift the cutting deck and then get back on the mower and proceed. As you might expect, this took time and slowed down the process. Superintendents then decided to just mow the strip rather than lifting the deck. It became a more efficient process for superintendents and the by-product was that golfers did not have to walk through the tall rough. He remembers this from just prior to the 1950s as his father did this at his course."