Next up: Chambers Bay. Sigh.

[Terry Lavin]

I agree that US Open coming back to Chambers Bay is not a given (not even likely at this point). If enthusiasm was all it took, PGA would have come back to Sahalee.

We should have a pretty good idea by Sun afternoon of the championship.

I wonder if Sahalee would get another big event if they went all Oakmont with the chainsaws.

[Richard Choi]

Sahalee does not have the room to add required length.

Cutting trees would also take away what little character the course has. Sahalee ain't Oakmont...

[Tom_Doak]

I agree that US Open coming back to Chambers Bay is not a given (not even likely at this point). If enthusiasm was all it took, PGA would have come back to Sahalee.

We should have a pretty good idea by Sun afternoon of the championship.

I've already got a good idea.  Mike Davis is deeply personally invested in the success of both Chambers Bay and Erin Hills as U.S. Open venues, and the USGA in general seems to be favoring public-course sites where they can control everything [plus prime time TV].  It would take a debacle in June to keep them from going back, and I can't imagine they will let it be a debacle, with so much riding on its success.  My observation at Sebonack was that they become very cautious with their set-ups if the weather is in doubt.

[Richard Choi]

TD, don't play with my emotions...

[Brent Carlson]

I agree that US Open coming back to Chambers Bay is not a given (not even likely at this point). If enthusiasm was all it took, PGA would have come back to Sahalee.

We should have a pretty good idea by Sun afternoon of the championship.

I've already got a good idea.  Mike Davis is deeply personally invested in the success of both Chambers Bay and Erin Hills as U.S. Open venues, and the USGA in general seems to be favoring public-course sites where they can control everything [plus prime time TV].  It would take a debacle in June to keep them from going back, and I can't imagine they will let it be a debacle, with so much riding on its success.  My observation at Sebonack was that they become very cautious with their set-ups if the weather is in doubt.

My only request is that Chambers Bay restores the width for everyday public play.  I understand Bethpage has never restored the width since the first US Open.

[William_G]

I agree that US Open coming back to Chambers Bay is not a given (not even likely at this point). If enthusiasm was all it took, PGA would have come back to Sahalee.

We should have a pretty good idea by Sun afternoon of the championship.

I wonder if Sahalee would get another big event if they went all Oakmont with the chainsaws.

no way! it's a housing development, trees provide privacy for the homeowners, what little there is anyway

[Mike Hendren]

I cannot speak for the professionals, but only from personal experience.  In my opinion, with the exception of the awkward uphill drivable par four, as a group the two shot holes at Chambers Bay are as good as I've played on a modern course in this country.  For what it's worth.

Bogey

[Matthew Petersen]

I would say this quote from Ryan is pretty accurate...

" … The green complexes are something else. With some of the pin placements, you will see some guys play it 30 yards left, 30 yards right or 30 yards long, and next thing you know you'll have a 2 footer. Or you'll be 75 feet from the pin. … You have to spend so much time on the greens, practice rounds are going to take eight hours. Every green has like five or six greens on it."

Having never played or seen it up close I am wondering if the "Every green has like five or six greens on it." could apply to ANGC too. Certainly three or four would be true at ANGC wouldn't it?

I think that's true, and it's sort of acknowledged by players in the way they talk about the necessity of experience at Augusta. Of course, Augusta is essentially criticism-proof given their position in the game. But also since the event is there every year, there is an opportunity for players to accumulate experience there. That opportunity simply doesn't exist at Chambers Bay, where even if a guy wanted to spend a month there, he wouldn't be seeing it in anything close to tournament condition.

I do tend to agree that the players whine about pretty much every US Open, for one reason or another, and it's been ever thus. I doubt it makes much difference for the prospects of the tournament returning, unless the tournament itself somehow turns into a calamity.

[Brian_Ewen]

http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/americas-st-andrews-a-golfing-gem-in-pierce-county/

[David_Tepper]

"Chambers Basement"

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/04/30/3769308_dead-and-buried-in-chambers-basement.html?rh=1

[Garland Bayley]

"Chambers Basement"

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/04/30/3769308_dead-and-buried-in-chambers-basement.html?rh=1

It's the kind of stupidness you get when you get USGA yokels thinking they can design golf.
Fortunately RTJ II kept him form modifying the 18th green complex.

[David Bartman]

This is the site of the next major. Really?  Is it worthy?  I'm just not getting it. It looks like pinball golf, random bounces and tricked up runouts. It looked that way at the U.S. Am and I've seen nothing since to persuade me otherwise.

Yes, I've never played it. Yes, I recognize that my take on the course lacks a lot of merit as a result. But, apart from the understandable Pac NW boosterism, I've seen very little favorable chatter. At the risk of offending Richard Choi and the several other locals who have been beating a quiet drum, I ask:  What am I missing?  This is shaping up as a most forgettable site for a U.S. Open. Go ahead, beat me up. Some bum is likely to do the same to Chambers Bay.

Will be interesting to see what JS does this June

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – Once his deficit became insurmountable, Jordan Spieth turned to his caddie/instructor Cameron McCormick and asked what he would have shot “on a normal golf course.”

“Probably a 72,” McCormick replied.

Alas, Chambers Bay is not a normal golf course.

Spieth shot 12-over 83 on Tuesday to finish two rounds of stroke play at the U.S. Amateur at 155, six shots below the cut line. Near the scoring tent afterward, the 16-year-old from Dallas couldn’t remember the last time he’d posted such a high score.

“That golf course is just ridiculously difficult,” said Spieth, Golfweek’s fourth-ranked junior. “People are saying all around that it’s unfair. But it’s not too unfair that you can’t shoot a 78.”

That, it turns out, is all Spieth would have needed to make the cut at the U.S. Amateur, a year after being knocked out in a playoff for the final spot. His putting was “pathetic,” and to get the ball close on these rock-hard fescue greens that are quickly becoming an issue, particularly in the late-afternoon sun, Spieth said, “you literally have to land the ball in a 1-yard circle to get it within 20 feet.”

“It can be done,” he added, “but I just didn’t do it.”

Still, Spieth lauded the made-for-HD layout that will host the U.S. Open in 2015.

“I absolutely love the golf course,” he said, “but I just felt like the greens were too hard, too difficult.”