Having savored this past Sunday for a couple of days now, I am ready to discuss the entire Chambers Bay experience....
Firstly, RTJII associate, Jay Blasi, is a stand-up guy and tribute to the firm. I was lucky enough to watch him slice and dice his way to a 70 that was nearly a 67. Even when I was -1 under three holes into the back nine, Jay was -2 having birdied both 11 and 12!!!
Moreover, it takes a family to bring a golf course to fruition, and Jay gave numerous accolades to his mentors in the RTJII firm, a classy thing to do. While I sensed he is VERY proud of his work at Chambers Bay, having spent the most time on site, he values and respects his elders in the organization. I forsee a bright career for this guy....not only is he passionate about his work but he's uber professional, approachable, a good public speaker and politically savvy. Where I come from we call guys like him "real."
And he's only 28!
Thank you for everything, Jay, how often in your life do you get to play with the designer??? And thanks to Nyk Pike and the rest of the Kemper crew. They put on a real special day for us. I even kept my bag our lunches came in! The silver dollar sized ball marks we each received after our round are fabulous keep sakes. My buddies are already clammoring for it.
It was so special to be a part of the preview, I hesitate to say a bad word about the golf course. As someone who loves wild and wooly golf courses, Chambers Bay is an awesome ride. The driving game is fun, the greens offer much intrigue. While a teeny bit unsophisticated, IMHO, the routing is solid. It changes direction at every turn, continuing to challenge the player to deal with the wind in a different manner. The course has holes bending right, left, uphill and down. There is flexibility....reachable par fives, a drivable par 4 and some absolutely brutish two shotters in #1, #8 and #11. As far as variety goes, the RTJII group hit a home run.
If someone had a gun to my head, I would say I am not thrilled with the 8th hole. Even while looking at the routing before visiting the site, I wondered why that one hole was on the other side of the driving range? I can well imagine there is some reason but #8 kinda put me to sleep. Standing on the edge of that drop off to the right of the fairway nearly gave me vertigo!
I liked the finishing stretch, #18 is a stern closer. Nobody has mentioned yet the lofty aspirations the golf course has, they are talking about major tournaments. Many of those things necessary to hosting a big event (tents, bleachers, gathering areas, etc...) were considered and integrated into the design. The golf course has a public path running right through the middle of it, kinda different, but well conceived. Only the rudest of people will interfere with your golf experience.
A few folks have lamented the one shotters. 3 of the 4 are downhillers, but they retain enough variety to satisfy this fella. One must remember the tees at Chambers Bay are super flexible. We could have played #15 at 110 yards, but didn't. From the backs, #17 would play as a real cool 200 yarder, IMHO. I encourage the greenskeepers to mix up the yardages, giving a nice variety of holes.
As Jim Adkinson mentioned, the bunkers have a lot of work to go. Considering we played from mats, lies didn't really matter much. However, once they open for normal play, the hazards are going to have to be cleaner. Professional golfers are not going to tolerate some of the bad lies I encountered. I know going into a hazard is suppose to be a bad place, but not every single one of them should equate to an unplayable lie.
Visually, Chambers reminds me of Arcadia and Whistling Straits. It played slow as molasses for us but we knew the turf was pretty shaggy. Once this course gets fast and firm, it is going to be a blast. I don't think the finish work is quite as sophisticated as say Pacific Dunes, it feels slightly more manufactured than say the Bandon courses. But I don't view this as a negative because the RTJII people haven't been practicing this type of thing. Really and truly? How can they expect to compete when it comes to making artificial features indistinguishable from nature herself when they don't practice doing such? Heritage (the construction co. who built the course) is not Bunker Hill, Hanse, Bradley, Urbina et al and it shows....but only to the snobbiest of gca junkies....
I wholeheartedly recommended Chambers Bay to anyone I talk to. I think it is awesome.....probably the best course in Washington. It is only going to get more beautiful too, as the land begins to recover from the jolt of new construction.
The course captures the spirit of golf, it stirs your soul and leaves you looking forward to the next time you can come back and tackle it again! I eagerly await making a return visit and see how she has grown.