U.S. Open week is here and our second and most controversial major is near.
Normally the debate about the U.S. Open and the setup starts now but we are well past that point. Many players had started complaining about Chambers Bay and the likely setup months ago, some without even setting foot on the property.
USGA Executive Director Mike Davis had warned players that this new links design might need more than a few practice rounds for one to fully understand the course.
That was met by a chorus of players challenging Davis’ thoughts and even prompted Rory McIlroy to sarcastically ask, “What’s Mike Davis’ handicap?”
That being said, Davis’s cautionary notice has been heeded by some and those that could, including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson paid recent visits to Chambers Bay. They are both interested to see how Davis sets up a course that has a myriad of options and neither bashed the Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout.
The fact is Chambers Bay isn’t just hosting its first U.S. Open. This is a links course and a U.S. Open has never been played on a links course. And it is played on fine fescue grasses that players never see in the U.S. Fescue is common when players tee it up at the Open Championship but a U.S. Open? Never. 
So while the players filter into University Place and get their much needed practice rounds in we can take a look at what awaits them and some of the history of Chambers Bay and of course the U.S. Open.
The Official U.S. Open website is a treasure of all things U.S. Open and more. Click here for their Video on Demand page and see Scott Walker’s feature “Building Chambers Bay.”
The Seattle Times sports section is full of great pieces on the U.S. Open and Chambers Bay. Scott Hanson offers us a fine breakdown of this historic Open.
Fox Sports which will be broadcasting its first U.S. Open (many will be critiquing them as much as the players) has a USGA on Fox page and there is plenty of good stuff there. Here is a Chambers Bay overview and the TV schedule.
And don’t forget the Chambers Bay website after all this is actually a public course which if you’re in the area you can play… for a mere $275, non-resident rate of course.
And Bill Pennington of the New York Times gives us the lowdown on all things Chambers Bay in his piece, “From Tree to Greens, a U.S. Open Unlike Any Before.”
From the tree, there’s only one on the course to the grass, all fescue all the time, to the train, which runs alongside the course and will be running during play, Pennington answers all our questions and then some.
It’s U.S. Open Week and like Pennington says, it will be unlike any other.
Related Articles
