USGA gives 2022 Women’s Amateur to Chambers Bay. A U.S. Women’s Open — and U.S. Open — next?
It’s certifiable: Chambers Bay has “become an an extremely special place to the USGA.”
That’s what the United States Golf Association’s chief of conducting championships said Monday while announcing the 122nd U.S. Women’s Amateur is coming to Pierce County’s jewel links course next to Puget Sound Aug. 8-14, 2022.
“Chambers Bay has become an extremely special place to the USGA, and we are ecstatic that on the heels of this week’s championship we can assure that our relationship with Pierce County and the golf course continues,” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director for championships, said while at Chambers for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
The Four-Ball is the USGA’s return to Chambers Bay for the first time since the 2015 U.S. Open. That major championship was a roaring success competitively, financially (including an estimated economic impact of $134 million for Pierce County) and for ratings on national television.
But the course designers’ attempt at fine fescue grass on the greens six years ago was a failure.
The USGA obviously sees that Chambers Bay has fixed that.
“The U.S. Women’s Amateur and Chambers Bay are sure to produce a memorable week, fitting of both the championship’s stature and the spectacular setting,” Bodenhamer said Monday.
Chambers Bay becomes the first the municipal course to host the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur and Women’s Amateur. It will be just the third course open to the public and the 15th course of any kind to host all three of these original USGA championships. Pebble Beach in California and Pinehurst, North Carolina, are the other courses open to the public to host the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur and the Women’s Amateur.
Chambers Bay isn’t stopping there.
Buoyed by universal praise by public golfers recently and the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball field over the past week for its new, poa annua greens, Chambers Bay is seeking to host the U.S. Women’s Open.
And, yes, Chambers Bay and Pierce County intend to parlay hosting a U.S. Women’s Open into hosting another U.S. Open for the men.
Don Anderson, executive counsel for Pierce County, told The News Tribune the county and Chambers Bay intend to use momentum for the ongoing U.S. Amateur Four-Ball plus hosting the Women’s Amateur next year to bid for the U.S. Women’s Open. Chambers and the county are seeking the premier championship in American women’s professional golf to be played here either in 2026 or ‘27. The USGA has yet to announce a host for the Women’s Open in those years.
The USGA already has the men’s U.S. Open booked out through 2027, at: Torrey Pines, San Diego, next month; The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts (2022); the upstart Los Angeles Country Club (2023); Pinehurst in North Carolina (2024); Oakmont, Pennsylvania (2025); Shinnecock Hills, New York (2026); and Pebble Beach, California (2027).
In addition to their remade Chambers Bay, Anderson and Pierce County are touting in their bid for the U.S. Women’s Open the fact the area from Federal Way to Lakewood (where Anderson is mayor) is home to one of the America’s largest Korean populations. Six of the world’s top eight ranked women golfers are Korean, or in the case of No. 6 Danielle Kang, Korean-American.
Pierce County also intends to pitch to the USGA for the U.S. Women’s Open that four airlines, including Korean Air, regularly operate nonstop flights from Seoul, South Korea, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“We hope to segue that into hosting another U.S. Open,” Anderson said of a return of the championship Jordan Spieth won at Chambers Bay in a thrilling finish six years ago.
“It was a financial success. It was a broadcasting success (ratings nationally on Fox television for that Open in 2015).
“But,” Anderson said with a rueful chuckle, “everything that could go wrong did go wrong with the greens.”
Chambers Bay has remade its scrubby, bumpy greens that got panned by the golfers and just about everyone else, including the USGA, at the 2015 U.S. Open. Gone is the (not so) fine fescue. In its place: greens with poa annua, a grass natural to the Pacific Northwest.
Matt Allen, a regional vice president at KemperSports that runs Chambers Bay and the course’s general manager, said Chambers has succeeded in getting its remade greens to have poa annua more of the firmness of fine fescue greens, but without the need for as much water. Poa, which is essentially a native weed in the Northwest, has 5 1/2-inch roots on Chambers Bay’s new greens, Allen said. Most courses have greens with 2-inch-root grass, which requires far more watering to achieve the preferred balance of firmness yet give that the world’s best greens achieve.
“We won’t have to sacrifice firmness with the poa,” Allen said.
He likened how the poa has taken to Chambers Bay’s greens to what happened at Bandon Dunes, another coastline links course in southern Oregon KemperSports runs. Bandon hosted the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.
Chambers Bay is playing 7,475 yards this week for the Four-Ball. That’s 91 yards longer than for the 2015 U.S. Open. Allen said for the U.S. Women’s Amateur next year the course is likely to be around 6,700 yards.
After this week’s Four-Ball championship, the next tournament test for the new greens at Chambers Bay will be the 54th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship July 20-23. Chambers also hosted that tournament in 2017. It’s moving back to Pierce County this summer after COVID-19 restrictions in Canada forced it to move from its scheduled place in British Columbia this year.
A steady stream of competitors this week at the Four-Ball have been marveling over Chambers Bay’s remade putting surfaces.
“This course is awesome!” Florida Gulf Coast University golfer Frankie Capan said on the edge of the 18th green at the end of a practice round Friday.
“These greens are sweet!”
Allen said there is “no doubt” this U.S. Amateur Four-Ball is the USGA’s test of Chambers Bay’s new greens.
The USGA’s announcement Monday the U.S. Women’s Amateur is coming next summer confirms Chambers Bay is passing that test.
“The USGA has been a tremendous partner since Chambers Bay opened nearly 15 years ago,” Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier said Monday. “To be able to continue this collaboration with another opportunity to showcase our world-class golf course to the best amateur players in the world is incredibly exciting for our entire community.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 11:59 AM.
