Chamber's Bay Pics

[Garland Bayley]

I am spending the weekend in Dupont, WA with a dear friend of my wife. On a little excursion from there, I took the Dupont-Steilacoom road to Steilacoom on Puget Sound. The main thouroughfare turns right and becomes Chamber's Creek Rd. which I followed to an nicely named street called Grandview Dr. I turned left towards the sound and after a short distance, there it was, Chamber's Bay Golf Course under construction. Walking the hiking trail above the course I spotted another walker that was taking an such an interest in the construction, I rightly judged him to be a golfer. Better yet, he is friends with a county official that had given him a tour of the course on Friday. What I relate to you here is my rememberance and understanding of what he told me was his rememberance of the course. He was not sure he remembered everything correctly, and I am not sure I understood him totally. So you get what you pay for.

I didn't get any idea of what most of the front 9 was like until the finishing 3 holes.
This is #7 playing away from the sound to the green just below me. It parallels to #15? which plays in the opposite direction.



This is a portion of the 8th fairway which plays along the hill below the property line where I took my pictures from. So the fairway has a steep hill rising to the left and a steep hill falling away from the right. My source thought this was a great par 5.



This is #9, a par 3, playing from the elevated tee on the upper left to the green on the lower right. The 8th green is in the foreground below the 9th tee.



This is #9 from behind the tee. I believe the permanent clubhouse will sit between the 9 green and what I believe is the 18 green further below it. I understand the 18th plays from the sound back up to the clubhouse site.



I believe this is #10, playing away from the clubhouse into the canyon. I don't know what the greensite looks like. My source called this a fabulous golf hole.



I believe this might be #13. It appears that it is probably a par 5 with a blind drive from the teeing area out of sight on the left in an area below the hill where the fairway doglegs.



I believe this will be #14, a dogleg around the waste area with the green set back in the bowl at the left.



Edit:

I missed one picture yesterday when posting these. This is probably #14 (which means the the previous two would be #12 and #13). The drive will be away from the sound across a large waste area to the landing area that the green is approached from.

Edit: I found the routing on the web. This is #4. The numbering of the previous two was correct.



I believe this is the 15, which plays down to the sound where 16, and 17 play along the sound before 18 returns to the clubhouse.

Edit: I found the routing on the web. This is number 5. Number 6 is a par 3 connecting this to #7 pictured previously.



I believe this to be the 18th, with the green in the lower left. It seems quite wide, so I don't know if there is a parallel hole or if it simply plays as a diagonal across the area with the sand peaks being in the middle forcing one to find his own personal line of charm.

Edit: I found the routing on the web. #1 shares the fairway with 18 and is on the right.



This is an overview of the property looking southwest into the setting sun from behind the 14 tee.



Wide view of the site looking somewhat north from behind the 9th tee.




It looks to me like something great is being created here. I have to wonder what the holes that are out of view or unidentifiable in my pictures are like. If they approach in greatness what I could see and identify, then something truly great is being created. Heck, even John Kirk, might like it.  

I also think the scenery is quite dramatic. IMHO it far surpasses ocean side courses such as Pebble Beach which simply offer a sea of blue. Trees, gotta love them, and here they are all around to be seen, but not on the golf "links".

[Garland Bayley]

For more on Chamber's Bay see
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=26965

[Jordan Wall]

Thanks, Garland.

Those are some newer pictures, and good ones too.

[Michael Dugger]

The look is awesome.  Can't wait to play it.

[Patrick Schultheis]

Thanks for the pictures.  I love the train running so close to the 18th hole.

I'm looking forward to playing the course.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Did you have a chance to see the Duponts Dynamite works course in Dupont?  The other 7500 yard course opening in the Tacoma area in 2007.

This should be quite a year for the South Puget Sound Golf community.

[Nick Church]

Thank you for sharing with us.

[Garland Bayley]

Did you have a chance to see the Duponts Dynamite works course in Dupont?  The other 7500 yard course opening in the Tacoma area in 2007.

This should be quite a year for the South Puget Sound Golf community.

My wife's friend is talking about taking us by there today. I was wondering if the Dupont course is the one you had mentioned in the other thread.

[Garland Bayley]

I missed a hole when I posted yesterday. The hole has a large waste area to drive across, which in the thumbnail view made me think it was just another overview picture showing lots of waste area. Some of you may have been astute enough to notice that it would be a long walk between what I labelled #14 and #15.  

[Jin Kim]

Looks like 18 and 1 share a wide fairway area according to this pic:

http://yakima.co.pierce.wa.us/golf/pics/InitDevPlan.jpg

There's more you can explore at:

http://yakima.co.pierce.wa.us/golf/index_content.htm

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Those are great pictures and the course looks as good as advertised to me.

[Tom_Doak]

There is one hole I'd like to particularly compliment and to make a point about how off-site views affect the quality of a golf hole.

In the picture which Garland labeled #14, but later amended that it was probably the 13th, the hole is a dogleg left around a large waste area, with a view of the sound beyond.

The view is from the tee where the hole will be played.  How many noticed that from this spot, the green lies directly below the end of the point which juts out into the sound in the distance?  That would be anyone's natural focal point when standing on that spot, and the golf hole compliments that natural focus.

When some of you argue that views off the course are irrelevant to the quality of the course, this is the point I'm trying to make.  Any hole in this spot would have had a great view, but THIS hole is better because it makes perfect use of that view.  My compliments to the chef.

[Anthony Butler]

There is one hole I'd like to particularly compliment and to make a point about how off-site views affect the quality of a golf hole.

In the picture which Garland labeled #14, but later amended that it was probably the 13th, the hole is a dogleg left around a large waste area, with a view of the sound beyond.

The view is from the tee where the hole will be played.  How many noticed that from this spot, the green lies directly below the end of the point which juts out into the sound in the distance?  That would be anyone's natural focal point when standing on that spot, and the golf hole compliments that natural focus.

When some of you argue that views off the course are irrelevant to the quality of the course, this is the point I'm trying to make.  Any hole in this spot would have had a great view, but THIS hole is better because it makes perfect use of that view.  My compliments to the chef.

A notable feature of Mackenzie seaside courses, there is a hole at Cypress Point that is SORT of like that, although not nearly to the same degree as the 13th at my home course, as seen in minature in my avatar and the photo below.



or from a different angle in Ran's review.

[Nyk Pike]

Garland - Thanks for the pictures. I was visiting family and stopped by on 12/25 to see the project and was impressed. I was limited to the trail so I didn't get on-site but would love to feel the scale of those "dunes" they built.

W.H. - Is the Dupont Dyno. project the one that stands out on Google Maps soouth of Chambers Bay? Is the excess land to be developed into anything? They have a huge parking lot.

[Tom_Doak]

Anthony:

Dr. MacKenzie did that all the time, it's where I learned the concept.  Three examples just off the top of my head:  

the first green at Pasatiempo lays directly under the tip of the Monterey Peninsula when viewed from the original first tee;

the 13th green at New South Wales is directly below the point on the other side of Botany Bay; and

the 14th green (I think it was the 14th) at the Golf Club del Uruguay sits directly below the hill at the harbor which was the basis for naming the city of Montevideo (I see a hill!).

[Anthony Butler]

Anthony:

Dr. MacKenzie did that all the time, it's where I learned the concept.  Three examples just off the top of my head:  

the first green at Pasatiempo lays directly under the tip of the Monterey Peninsula when viewed from the original first tee;

the 13th green at New South Wales is directly below the point on the other side of Botany Bay; and

the 14th green (I think it was the 14th) at the Golf Club del Uruguay sits directly below the hill at the harbor which was the basis for naming the city of Montevideo (I see a hill!).

Tom,

I never noticed that feature at Pasa. Growing up in Sydney, we don't consider anything to be by the sea, unless the ocean spray hits you in the face...

The 16th at NSWGC appears to be an attempt to point in the same direction as 13... together with 14, that's three world class dogleg lefts in the space of 4 holes.

The land doesn't work that way, but I always thought that a right hand dogleg aimed at the rock outcrop where the 6th tee is located would have been a sensational hole, esp. in the years when the SS Minmi was residing there.

The 12th is about as close as the good Doctor gets at CP. Although at least half the time it's too damn foggy/hazy to even see the land on the far side of the bay.

[Garland Bayley]

I found the routing on the web, and corrected the numbers of a couple of holes in the original post.

[PThomas]

thanks Garland...looks promising

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Nyk Pyk.....as you look at the Google aerial..

Chambers Bay sits on the water in University Place WA.

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl&q=

To the SE is the Fort Steilacoom course...further East is my home course, Oakbrook Golf and country Club.  

As you follow the coast to the South you will see the Town of Steilacoom and then further south from there a new course with bare ground.  As a reference point just south of the Dupont course is the Nisqually River Delta anf the Ft lewis golf course along side of the delta.  

The bare space next to Chambers is land slated to be park and recreation for the county, and incidentally a great place to stage a major tournament.  

Hope that isn't too confusing

[Anthony Gray]

  Bump