Chambers Bay

Favorite Hole

No. 16, par 4, 396 yards

Is this a somewhat clichéd choice? Sure. Aside from the par-3 15th, with its backdrop of the Puget Sound and the iconic Lone Fir, the 16th is the most photographed hole at Chambers Bay. But it’s not just pretty. It’s also one of the most cleverly designed par 4s in the Pacific Northwest.

The hole runs alongside the BNSF Railway and the shoreline of the sound. Neither of these elements is meant to play as a hazard, however. The primary threat is a huge waste area extending from tee to green on the right side. The 60-yard-wide fairway offers ample room on the left to avoid the sand, but if your tee shot ends up on the left side of the fairway, your second shot will be quite difficult. The left-to-right sidehill lie will encourage a right miss, as will the left-to-right contours of the green complex. Getting close to a pin on the narrow back tongue of the green is nearly impossible from that angle. From the right side of the fairway, on the other hand, the 50-yard-deep green opens up, and the kicker slopes along the left edge of the putting surface will work for you instead of against you.

The 16th at Chambers Bay bears marked similarities to the fourth at Pacific Dunes. In addition to running alongside bodies of salt water, the two holes offer a similar array of options off the tee and consequences for conservative play.

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Overall Thoughts

1) Short grass everywhere

2) Firm conditions

3) Topographical variety from tee to green

That’s it. That’s the recipe for challenging skilled players without brutalizing average golfers.

The Old Course at St. Andrews discovered this three-part mixture of agronomic and architectural elements 150 years ago, and it’s still thriving in its double role as people’s links and Open-rota linchpin. America’s two greatest championship courses, Augusta National and Pinehurst No. 2, have used the same recipe to vex professionals and delight amateurs for the better part of a century.

So the smartest decision Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his on-site crew made in building Chambers Bay Golf Course was to ignore the conventional wisdom that a U.S. Open “test” must have narrow fairways, irrigated rough, and predictable penalties for poor strikes. Instead, they placed their trust in short grass, firmness, and contour. The result was a course that serves the purposes of a daily facility and a tournament venue equally well.

The sixth hole is a good example of Chambers Bay’s dual appeal. This stout par 4 plays from an elevated tee to an elevated green, bending around a set of large berms covered in native grasses. A few humps in the fairway differentiate aggressive from conservative tee shots: if you decline to take on the inside of the dogleg, these contours will guide your ball to the left side of the corridor, where you’ll face a long approach from an awkward angle. The topographical challenges continue at the green, where internal ripples create several small pinnable areas. For a high-level player, earning a birdie look requires two exceptional shots, and making par is no guarantee even after a fairway and green in regulation. For a mid-handicapper, however, a plodding bogey is available. A drive to the safe side of the fairway, followed by an approach short of the green, will rarely produce a disaster. Like a well-trained guard dog, this hole won’t bare its teeth unless attacked.

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While Chambers Bay’s individual hole designs are almost uniformly strong,* its routing is often clumsy. The transitions between tees and greens are regularly long and counterintuitive, necessitating a great number of signs to point golfers in the right direction. Particularly bothersome are the byzantine treks from the third green to the fourth green and from the 14th green to the 15th tee. These hitches in the routing, combined with straight-uphill climbs on several holes, make Chambers Bay a more arduous walk than it should be.

(*I even enjoy the much-maligned eighth hole. Benched into the bluff near the eastern boundary of the site, this par 5 is both visually memorable and strategically sound. Its best feature is the high-left/low-right entry into the green. Aggressive, well-played second shots to the left are rewarded with a view of the putting surface, whereas middling efforts to the right always result in a blind third shot. A fun hole—as long as you’re not prone to a big slice.)

In addition, the ground game at Chambers Bay is not what it used to be. As the fairway turf has matured, it seems to have softened and slowed down, and the new Poa annua greens, while slick and consistent, are not quite as firm as their fescue-based predecessors. While low approaches still roll out a bit, they no longer hurtle forward in the thrilling, chaotic way that they did 15 years ago.

At the same time, Chambers Bay should be commended for its steadfast devotion to short grass. Recently, the course eliminated a cut of rough that had been introduced at the USGA’s request prior to the 2010 U.S. Amateur. Today, Chambers Bay once again features only three classes of grass: native, fairway, and green. The massive, tumbling fairways, now restored to their full scale, are wonderful to behold. If only St. Andrews and Augusta National were similarly committed to the first of the three ingredients I listed at the beginning of this section.

Few courses in the world accommodate both championship play and everyday use as well as Chambers Bay does. For that reason alone, it’s a shame we won’t see the course host a U.S. Open again anytime soon.

1 Egg

Between its stunning location, well-executed strategic design, and beautiful tie-ins with the surrounding county park, Chambers Bay is clearly worthy of an Egg. Yet its architecture, particularly with regard to routing, doesn’t quite reach the level of brilliance and refinement that has characterized our 2 Egg category thus far. (Past 2 Eggers include Kingsley Club, Old Macdonald, CommonGround, Cape Arundel, Myopia Hunt Club, Sand Valley, Diamond Springs, and Southern Hills. Rarefied air!) But no matter the rating, Chambers Bay is a valuable and important hub of American golf, and a deserving venue for a major championship.

Course Tour

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Additional Content

Fried Egg Golf Podcast on Chambers Bay as a U.S. Open venue