The closely mown ribbon of grass running from the tee to the green — the target off the tee and the easiest place to hit your next shot from. Cut to roughly half an inch, fairway turf gives you a clean lie where the club can contact the ball first, which is why "fairways hit" is a stat pros track. Miss the fairway and you're in the rough, sand, or trees, where controlling distance and spin gets much harder. Strategically, golf is largely a game of moving from fairway to green with as few detours as possible.