Chambers Bay series begins Saturday

Planet Golf — 09 July 2012 by Bob Sherwin

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wa. – If you bring up the Chambers Bay web site, you’ll be able to keep track of the countdown clock before the first tee time of the 2015 U.S. Open at the course. It’s already up and running and already down under 1,070 days to go.

Indeed, it’s still four figures in terms of days but there is no idle time for the five-year-old links-style course. Folks at Chambers have been busy revamping the tees and greens, hiring agronomists, and moving dirt around in preparation for the first Open ever in the Northwest – after 114 years everywhere else.

Over the next three days, beginning Saturday, Golferswest.com will look at how the course is preparing for the professionals in three years. We toured the course with General Manager Matt Allen and addressed the issues with USGA’s Executive Director Mike Davis.

We’ll focus on what has changed since it opened in 2007 – and even how it has changed since the 2010 U.S. Amateur. We’ll talk about the new ‘Chambers Basement’ pot bunker on the finishing hole and the steps being taken to make the par-3s even more compelling.

The series starts Saturday with – Chambers: A master work in progress.

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About Author

Bob Sherwin

Bob grew up in Cleveland, an underdog city with perennial underdog teams, and that gave him an appreciation and an affinity for the grinders in golf, guys such as Rocco Mediate, Jhonattan Vegas and star-crossed John Daly. This is the 53rd year for Bob as a sportswriter, the first 34 working for newspapers throughout the west, Tucson (Daily Star), San Francisco (Examiner) and Seattle (Times), and the past 19 years as a freelancer. He has covered just about every sport, including golf tournaments, Tucson Open, Bing Crosby/AT&T Pro-Am, the 1998 PGA Championship, the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, the 2010 U.S. Amateur the 2015 U.S. Open and the annual Champions Tour Boeing Classic. He also writes articles for Cascade Golfer Magazine and Destination Golfer. For most of his 20 years at the Seattle Times his primary beat was the Mariners. He then picked up Washington men's basketball in the winter. He also was the beat writer for the Sonics, including 1996 when they played the Bulls for the NBA title. After a lifetime hacking on public courses, he finally gave in and joined a country club in 2011, Aldarra near Seattle. Despite (or perhaps because) of his 14 handicap, he won the 'Super Senior'' (65 and older) championship in 2017. He has a pair of aces – 37 years apart – and in 2009 came agonizingly close to his ultimate golf goal of scoring in the 70s when he finished with an even 80. He lives in Seattle.