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CHAMBERS BAY
GOLF COURSE GOLF COURSE
PAR 3 172 YARDS
University Place, WA
253.460.4653
chambersbaygolf.com
Eight months after it opened in 2007, Chambers Bay was awarded the 2015 U.S. Open. Not
only the first course in the Northwest to host a U.S. Open, it's also only the third municipal
course and the first built in almost 50 years to snag one—an unprecedented feat. The course
proved worthy during the 2010 U.S. Amateur, and has since offered casual golfers the chance
to play the same holes as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The 15th is the most recognizable golf hole in the state of Washington, with stunning views of
Puget Sound, McNeil Island, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. To make it even more
unforgettable, it's home to the Lone Fir, a symbol as iconic to Chambers Bay as the lighthouse
is to Scotland's Turnberry Resort. While Chambers Bay is just beginning to establish the
championship pedigree of other US Open sites, it has its own history as a 100-year-old sand
and gravel mine. Even the tree has a story, having been vandalized in 2008 by an unknown
intruder.
The hole sits like a postage stamp above the railroad tracks—but don't assume that the
shortest par 3 on the course is also the easiest. With most play coming from about 120 yards,
the hole demands a crisp shot into the wind, favoring the left half of the green even when
the pin is to the right. There is a slope left of the green that can feed balls to the hole, a trick
which led to a dozen holes-in-one during the course's first five years, two of which came on
successive swings in the same group. If the pin is on the right, beware: a tongue of green
laps down toward the giant waste area. Snap a picture, grab your wedge, note which way the
wind is blowing, wonder what Tiger Woods would do, and enjoy one of golf's great new holes.
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Photograph by Martin Miller
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