The course

The course is truly the star of the show here.  Chambers Bay is a walking only golf course, and the authentic nature of the facility can be felt at every turn throughout your day.  The team here has thought of everything, and even the turn house known as The Landing has been fashioned in a way where the roof is covered in fescue, so it blends in perfectly with the surroundings.  As you’ll see in our exclusive drone footage of the golf course here, it’s a stunning layout and we’ll highlight a few of our favorite attributes below.

Chambers Bay sets the stage for your experience right away on the first hole.  The 1st is a relatively straightforward par-4 that provides an ample fairway draped on each side by fairway bunkers that can swallow up an errant tee shot.  While the drive is quite forgiving, it’s the approach shot that will capture your attention.  You’ll be left with an uphill shot to an angled green where any shot that finishes barely short and left will run back down the slope leaving you about a 40-to-50-yard chip shot.  And right away, you know it’s game on.

The theme of a premium being placed on your approach shot continues throughout the front-9, and there are several demanding tee shots including the par-4 5th hole and the par-4 7th hole, which actually has plenty of room left but many golfers try to cut off too much of the corner over the bunker making the hole play significantly longer.  

The front-9 closes out with a beautiful downhill par-3 that features an array of bunkers short and right and a forgiving bank on the left side of the green that can help a pulled tee shot (or a push for you lefties) still find the green.

By this point you’ll be fully vested into your round, and from here on in it only gets better. The back 9 starts off with three par-4s in a row that are all solid, and we particularly loved the 12th hole which is a risk-reward drivable par-4 with out of bounds stakes tightly tucked in up the left side and fescue covered dunes up the right side making accuracy an absolute must here.  Even if you decide to lay up with a long or mid iron off the tee, it’s still a tight landing area so it often tempts players to pull out the big stick and give it a shot. The 13th hole provides a gettable par-5 where you’ll want to avoid any approaches short and right as they tend to funnel way off the green leaving a tricky up and down.

From the 14th tee in, you’ll be blown away.  

As you’ll see in the drone footage above, the waste area up the left side of the par-4 14th hole frames the hole beautifully, and the one strategically placed pot bunker in the middle of the fairway will be sure to grab your attention off the tee. After a good approach shot and finishing up here, you’ll make your way over to the signature stretch of holes that includes the par-3 15th hole.  

With the lone fir tree on the property that looms over the back side of the green and the Puget Sound backdrop, this downhill tee shot plays around 150 yards for us mere mortals, but can stretch back to nearly 250 yards from the tees that they used during the 2015 U.S. Open.  Regardless of where the pin is, playing to the center of the green here is a great way to avoid the surrounding bunkers which will hopefully help you walk off with a three, or even sneak in a two with a great putt.

While you can see the famous train tracks behind the 15th hole, it’s the par-4 16th hole where you fully get the vibes of the nearby railway into full view as you play this shorter par-4 parallel to the Puget Sound.  A sound tee shot that favors the left side of the fairway should funnel back right some, and the skinny, undulating green will require a solid approach if you want to score here.  

Your round then concludes with the slightly downhill par-3 17th hole that can play particularly tough when the pin is tucked back right, and then the par-5 18th hole that famously played a massive part in the 2015 U.S. Open. Jordan Spieth knew that he likely needed at least a 4 here, and he hit his second shot on the green from 284 yards and two-putted for birdie that ultimately gave him his one-shot victory over Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen.  Hopefully the 18th hole treats you as well as it did Jordan Spieth, and as you knock in your final putt you’ll know you’ve just finished playing one of the game’s best venues.