For my first weekend in Washington I headed up towards the Seattle area for some golf with another friend who was visiting the area. We had a 4pm round on Saturday at Chambers Bay Golf Course and then a Sunday morning tee time at another course about a half hour away.

As soon as I knew I was headed to the Pacific Northwest I started thinking about how to fit in a round at Chambers Bay! Chambers Bay has been a bucket list course of mine for a couple reasons, but mostly because it hosted the U.S. Open in 2015.

If you haven’t been here before then you’ll probably want to allow yourself some extra time to check-in, park and get loose. The clubhouse sits at a high point on the property and you drive down a large hill to park at the bottom. Once you get to the flat area then you walk back uphill (about 1/4 of the way) and under the road to get to the first tee, which is nowhere near the proshop. I found all this quite confusing and was glad I got there an hour early.

If you think back to the 2015 U.S. Open, then you’ll likely remember some of the negative press that the course got (there have been a few changes since then). Those criticisms probably were valid at the time, but from an amateur’s perspective I thought Chambers Bay turned out to be an incredible course. For reference, I’ll put it among the top ten courses I’ve played.

The property the course occupies is quite severe, basically it is a large hill next to the Puget Sound. Because of the terrain change you have endless views on a clear day! The site was previously a rock quarry. One thing to note is that the course is walking only (like Bandon Dunes) and it was one of the toughest golf-course walks that I’ve made. I’m in decent shape, but it felt like the walk here was going to kill me! A few cart paths here would have helped the experience.

Chambers Bay was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and is a links course. The is only one tree on the property, which is photographed often – including by yours truly! That tree is a Douglas fir and is probably one of the most famous trees in golf. It sits behind the green on the signature par-3 15th and subtly reminds you that you are golfing in the Pacific Northwest.

We played the sand tees which are 71.7/130/6499 and I thought there was a nice mix of playable holes and challenging ones. The course features wide fairways, large greens, uneven lies and penal bunkering. There are chipping areas and steep slopes around the greens so you can play any number of shots when chipping and pitching.

Besides a deep coffin bunker on the 18th, I didn’t think there were any weak elements at Chambers Bay. It is tough to narrow it down to a couple favorite holes, but the driveable par-4 12th (262 yards uphill) and the short 15th were my favorite holes. The back nine is closer to the Puget Sound and an easier walk so I enjoyed it more than the front nine.

The green fee came to ~$160 after taxes (twilight) which isn’t cheap, but I felt that was very fair for a top 100 public/major championship golf course. The conditions were good, with the highlight being the new poa annua greens. The greens were re-grassed in 2018 with poa, replacing the fescue greens. The greens were pure and had some fire in them.

The fairways are still fescue and provided clean, tight lies. Adjusting to the tighter lies here could be a challenge for those who normally play the bluegrass or ryegrass (I think) fairways of the region. The lies on the fescue reminded me a bit of bermuda, just without all the grain.

I had a blast at Chambers Bay and think it is an underrated top 100 course. If you can handle a tough walk (and probably a long round) then put this one on your list of places to play – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):