“It’s a legit course, a championship course.” – Puyallup golf pro Ryan Moore
This morning, the first golfers are teeing off at the new Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place on its official opening day. But the public has been enjoying the waterfront site for almost two months, walking around and through it on the challenging Soundview Trail.
Walkers and runners, pram pushers and cyclists are probably out there right now, hoping to catch a glimpse of the course’s first-day action. They and the golfers are all enjoying a piece of Pierce County real estate that only a few years ago was a barren wasteland, a former sand-and-gravel pit fenced off from public view.
The pit has been transformed into a place the public is eager to visit, a place to take out-of-town guests to marvel at the views over Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains, a place for avid golfers to enjoy the kind of course they’d otherwise have to travel far to play.
Regional and national media have taken notice, with Time magazine calling the $21 million course “stunning” and applauding its “wild beauty.” Course management reports that golfers have been grabbing up tee times; 90 percent are booked through June and 60 percent from July 1-22. With more than 5,100 rounds of golf already reserved, the goal of reaching about 31,000 in the course’s first year looks achievable.
Golfers and non-golfers alike have a stake in the success of Chambers Bay, the only true links-style course in this region and one designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. to be tournament-friendly. Owned by the citizens of Pierce County and built on the public’s dime, the 250-acre course is intended to be the revenue driver – no pun intended – for development of recreational amenities on the remaining 680 acres of the Chambers Creek Properties site. It’s also a practical way for Pierce County to dump a lot of treated wastewater.
It’s a gamble, to be sure, but one that has an excellent chance of paying off for the public. County Executive John Ladenburg has been the strongest advocate for the course and for speeding up the Chamber Creek Properties 50-year development plan.
Residents are already enjoying some of the dividends of Ladenburg’s gamble. That should continue as Chambers Bay matures into what many expect will be one of the nation’s premier golf courses.
Once a scar on the landscape, the site that is now Chambers Bay Golf Course – and the park growing up around it – have the potential to be one of Pierce County’s brightest jewels.
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