The Ever-Changing Chambers Bay
toward or along the Puget Sound. (Or is it Lake Michigan? There is certainly a Whistling Straits feel to Chambers Bay, especially because you never lose sight of the water.) “All the par 3s have built-in flex-
ibility. The most exciting for me is watching what might happen on No. 15. They can really move that any- where from 140 yards to 260.” Charlton can only imagine the
conversations and reactions that will take place when players and caddies realize they are facing a radically dif- ferent hole from the previous day. The tee box for No. 17 will jump on top
of a dune when the hole location is back-right, producing a shot as short as 120 yards. “There are 10 or 12 holes where
we have that kind of flexibility,” Charlton said. That flexibility includes the pos-
sibility of more than one hole playing as drivable par 4. The blind and uphill No. 12 only tips out at 304 yards, but a steep punchbowl green protects par. An alternate green on No. 5 was
originally built to tempt players with another drivable par 4, although it was was ultimately scrapped in 2012. But the idea of another drivable
par 4 didn’t die. The tees were pushed up during the U.S. Amateur on the scenic 16th hole, which skirts the railroad tracks and the Puget Sound before the smallest green on the course squeezes into the shape of a bottle. Charlton sure wouldn’t mind seeing the tees shuffled up during the championship. “Let players go,” Charlton said.
“That’s what the setup out here does. It forces the players to make deci- sions. It brings another element into the game, and that’s the golf-course management skills.”
“If these guys don’t come out and study the course beforehand, I think they are going to be shocked,” Charlton said. “They’re going to feel like they came to the British Open a month early.”
The 10th green at Chambers Bay is tucked tenuously into the surrounding dunes.
30 /
NCGA.ORG / FALL 2014
PHOTO: MARTIN MILLER
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