Watching Rickie Fowler and the boys light it up at The PLAYERS has me Jonesing for another great tournament. And while the Wells Fargo Championship may provide us with some fireworks there is nothing like the big stage and for me the big stage is a major championship.
There are 35 days and five PGA Tournaments before the U.S. Open and with all due respect to the tour, the next five weeks are all solid stops with Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament being the crown jewel but even Jack will tell you there is nothing like the majors.
June’s Golf Digest just hit my mailbox and it is their U.S. Open Preview Issue and it’s just enough to soothe my U.S. Open Jones. 
Of course the preview section isn’t available on their website yet so go out and grab a copy.
Ron Whitten, their architecture editor profiles the 2015 site, Chambers Bay in Washington and chronicles the many “firsts” that will take place at Chambers Bay.
1. Chambers Bay is the first U.S. Open to be contested in a sand box. Chambers Bays lies in an old sand and gravel pit on the western edge of Tacoma, Wash. The pit was first mined in the 1890’s, and over the next century was said to have provided 90 percent of the material used to create the skyline of Seattle.
2. It’s the first course designed specifically to host a U.S. Open. There were originally 55 design firms who responded to the bid to build Chambers Bay. They choose the Robert Trent Jones II firm consisting of Jones and Bruce Charlton.
3. It is the first Robert Trent Jones Jr. design to host a U.S. Hard to believe that in a hugely successful career of over 50 years, with 300-plus designs and redesigns to his credit, Trent Jr. never had a course that even sniffed a U.S. Open.
4. It’s the first all-Fescue U.S. Open course. The fescue turf, ideal in a maritime climate, is common on the links of Scotland, Ireland and the English coastline, but not on courses in America.
5. It’s the youngest course to be awarded the Open. Chambers Bay opened for play on June 23, 2007. Less than eight months later, on Feb. 7, 2008, the USGA announced it was awarding the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open to the place.
6. It’s the first U.S. Open course to have holes that will alternate par. The course will play as a par 70, normally it is 71. For a time (Mike) Davis toyed with the idea of playing the course as a par 71 on certain days and a par 70 for other rounds because he was undecided on whether to play the first and 18th holes as long par 5s each day (par71), or one of them as a par 4 (70). Then it occurred to him, because the two holes are parallel in opposite directions, he could alternate par each day and still retain the overall par of 70.
7. This will be the first U.S. Open televised by Fox Sports Network. With only one previous golf broadcast, Fox is as untested as Chambers Bay.
8. Chambers Bay is the first U.S. Open course with only one tree. It’s not that Chambers Bay was treeless to begin with, but the only mature tree was a solitary, wind-warped fir near what became the 16th tee. The designers decided to keep it. 
9. In a story of firsts, we finish with a last: Chambers Bay will be the last U.S. Open where an anchored putting stroke will be allowed.
This is just the tip of the iceberg there is so much more in the magazine. Grab a copy.
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