[Richard Choi]

Face the facts, ladies and gentlemen, getting grass to grow on that site is proving to be difficult.

It's been almost two years since we had our gathering out there. Two years.

In that span of time a course like Wine Valley has gone from nothing to a course with wonderful firm turf and greens rolling at 10+

This is not a knock on the crew or any of the folks at CB, it's simply becoming very obvious that they've got challenges.

I didn't realize Wine Valley was an all fescue grass course...

[Michael Dugger]

Face the facts, ladies and gentlemen, getting grass to grow on that site is proving to be difficult.

It's been almost two years since we had our gathering out there. Two years.

In that span of time a course like Wine Valley has gone from nothing to a course with wonderful firm turf and greens rolling at 10+

This is not a knock on the crew or any of the folks at CB, it's simply becoming very obvious that they've got challenges.

I didn't realize Wine Valley was an all fescue grass course...

No need to be defensive, Richard.

Wine Valley is fescue, with bent greens. 

And either way, your inference holds little water if comparing CB to BD. 

All I'm saying is that property is proving to be a difficult grow, whether it's the subsoil, climate, latitude and longitude or shade.

I think CB needs an Indian summer.

[Richard Choi]

I don't know about defensive, but comparing a course located in high desert to one located on Puget Sound with its erractic weather is not exactly comparing apples to apples.

You might as well compare the conditioning to courses in Palm Springs or Phoenix.

The last two winters have been pretty bad for grass growing in Seattle area. You can't control mother nature. If all they wanted was to make some money and not host a major, they could have taken the same tact with Wine Valley and chose bent grass greens.

But thankfully they did not. People need to be bit more patient.

[Michael Dugger]

I don't know about defensive, but to compare a course located in high desert to one located on Puget Sound with its erractic weather is not exactly comparing apples to apples.

You might as well compare the conditioning to courses in Palm Springs or Pheonix.

The last two winters have been pretty bad for grass growing in Seattle area. You can't control mother nature. If all they wanted was to make some money and not host a major, they could have taken the same tact with Wine Valley and chose bent grass greens.

But thankfully they did not. People need to be bit more patient.

I fully concur, Richard, but must inquire, at what point are we entitled to "run out of patience?"

[Richard Choi]

I fully concur, Richard, but must inquire, at what point are we entitled to "run out of patience?"

If we are still having the same discussion in 2013. At that point US Open would be in serious jeopardy.

[Michael Dugger]

I fully concur, Richard, but must inquire, at what point are we entitled to "run out of patience?"

If we are still having the same discussion in 2013. At that point US Open would be in serious jeopardy.

Let's just hope nobody goes George Crump on themselves before then...

[Richard Choi]

I went out to Chambers yesterday afternoon. The conditions were perfect, low 70's, no humidity, steady breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. Man, it doesn't get much better than that.

I am also happy to report that the course is in the best shape I have seen so far in last 2 years. I was quite nervous after Sandy's comments and what I saw just 5 or 6 weeks ago. But a month of sunny, warm weather can really work wonders.

The best news of all is that the greens are in fantastic shape!!! Sure, they are still slow, but it is no longer because you have more sand than grass, it is just because they are keeping the grass longer to encourage growth. But the density is high and uniformity is very good. I can't believe these are the same greens. My understanding is that they are going to start mowing them shorter by end of June and if they start rolling them on top of that, I would say they can get the greens rolling at 8 to 10 easy.

Even the patches on 12th greens are starting to blend in nicely and they don't affect the putts much. The patch rye grass that were growing on 8th greens are gone and that green looked great.

The work on 4th hole is much more extensive than I thought it would be. They have are moving a lot of dirt and have completely stripped the green and the fairway to about 70 yards out. I am bit nervous that that green will be ready for play by US Am next year.

Only real conditioning problems I saw were bare patches of 1 to 4 inch in diameter located randomly on the course. My guess is that they have been weeding.

I must say I am feeling much better about the conditioning at Chambers Bay.

On a sadder note, they have dramatically narrowed the fairways on several holes. The biggest change is on the 5th hole where they have narrowed the fairway by about 20 yards from the right. This eliminates the preferred right side when the pin is located on the right side of the fairway. Now, if the pin is on the right, every ball on the fairway will have to deal with the nasty "road hole" bunker that guards the horseshoe green. I think this is really unfortunate.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

This is the work on the 4th green, photo was taken 5/28/09.  Also notice the narrowing of the fifth fairway in the upper left.

I played Chambers one month ago and have previously commented that I thought they finally had a handle on some of the issues with the greens. Most importantly that while the grass on the putting surfaces had actually been allowed to grow longer and in my opinion had increased in speed.  I applaud the commitment by Perce County to invest in this project to get it right.

There has been some conjecture as to why play had begun on Chambers 'before it was ready.'  Let's be blunt.  Pierce County has $20 Million in bonds riding on this gamble. With payments of between $1.25 and $1.5 milllion dollars in annual debt costs, tax payers were not going allow the golf course to lay fallow in either this economy or the environment in which the decisions were made to go ahead with the golf course. 

On a grander scale this brings into question the use of taxpayer funds for projects like this and the resulting promises for the investment working as an economic engine for the municipality.   

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