Overview

Prodded by his partner, Bruce Charlton, and their then-design associate Jay Blasi, veteran architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. agreed to a radically different, vertical-links style when building Chambers Bay in an abandoned sand quarry near Tacoma. By the time Golf Digest named it as America’s Best New Public Course of 2008, the course had already been awarded the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open. In the Amateur, Chambers Bay proved to be hard, both in the firmness of its dry fescue turf (Jones called his fairways, “hardwood floors”) and its difficulties around and on the windswept greens. For the U.S. Open, the firmness and surrounds were more manageable, but the greens were notoriously bumpy. That’s now been remedied, as the fescue turf on the putting surfaces has been replaced with pure Poa Annua. What's irreplacable are the views of Puget Sound from nearly every hole, multi-level fairways that entice bold driving to gain second-shot advantages and two holes running parallel to a railway that's invokes feelings of early Scottish and Irish links courses.

About

Holes 18
Length 7585
Slope 135
Price $280
Facility Type Public
Year Opened 2007
Designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and Bruce Charlton

Awards

100 Greatest the Second 100
100 Greatest Public
Best Courses in Every State

Ranking history:

Second 100 Greatest: Ranked since 2013.
2023-'24 ranking: 125th.
Previous ranking: 132nd.
Highest ranking: 121st, 2013-'14.

100 Greatest Public: Ranked since its debut.
2023-'24 ranking: 20th.
Previous ranking: 22nd.
Highest ranking:
Current.

Best in State: Ranked top 5 since 2009.
Current ranking: 1st.

Panelists

Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

4.4

100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

Shot Options
7.5693
Character
7.3945
Challenge
7.5696
Layout Variety
7.5253
Fun
7.3645
Aesthetics
7.6887
Conditioning
7.0163

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