South Puget Sound golf course finishes major renovation

Joe Teehan

KGMIAP/Ted S. WarrenIn this June 26, 2017 photo, greenskeeper Slater Heath mows near the 12th green at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. Chambers Bay hosted the 2015 U.S. Open, and a possible return of major championship golf to the Pacific Northwest may depend on the success of a significant shift in vision for Chambers Bay -- the changing of the greens from fine fescue grass to poa annua grass, shown in the patch of grass at right, a dramatic adjustment from the original design by course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his team.

4-1-2019

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Chambers Bay Golf Course reopens on Wednesday after being closed for nearly seven months as crews switched to a new turf type that’s “a little more native to the northwest.”

General Manager Zac Keener tells KOMO the decision to re-sod the golf course wasn’t entirely due to complaints that made it to the international golf community after it hosted the U.S. Open in 2015, but said it was needed.

Golfers who used the course south of Tacoma had criticized the inconsistent and bumpy putting surfaces which made it more challenging to gauge.

The budget for the renovation was $230,000.