By Flint Wheeler
“Chambers Bay will forever have the moniker of a U.S. Open Course,” said course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. “Only 27 active courses (since World War II) have that moniker. From my perspective, no higher honor could have been given.” Jones Jr. likened it to a movie winning an Oscar for Best Picture. The movie and award are forever linked.
People outside the state of Washington who had never heard of Pierce County and thought Tacoma was just a suburb of Seattle, soon will know otherwise. Chambers Bay, constructed on a former gravel and sand mine, strikingly situated on Puget Sound, hosts the U.S. Open from June 18-21. For a week, the world will be watching.
“People have no concept of the amount of media attention. They will have over 1,200 media members for the Open,” said John Ladenburg, the former Pierce County executive who spearheaded the idea and whose vision it was to build a course that would host a U.S. Open. “You can’t buy that kind of publicity. And it’s for Washington State. There has never been a world sporting event like this in the Pacific Northwest, and we are all in it together.”
Pat McCarthy, who succeeded Ladenburg as county executive, said the championship is projected to bring $145 million to the region for what she calls the “Super Bowl of Golf.”
“If you hold a U.S. Open, they will come” (Thank you Kevin Costner).
Matt Allen, general manager of Chambers Bay, has seen business increase the past couple years. In 2013 Chambers Bay was profitable for the first time. It was even busier in 2014.
And after the U.S. Open?
“They will be as busy as they want to be,” Ladenburg said. The course has been running at basically full capacity the past couple of years, but an influx of out-of-area players — who pay the highest greens fees — is expected to significantly increase revenue.
“We had people coming from everywhere,” Rehor said. “Anytime you break that top 100 (list of golf courses) and people have seen it on TV — a great course and at a reasonable rate — they want to come play it.”
Just the anticipation of the U.S. Open coming has had that effect at Chambers Bay. (The course opened in 2007, and in a surprise move less than a year later the USGA awarded it this year’s Open.)
Despite significant closures in the winter to get the course ready for the U.S. Open, Chambers Bay had record revenues of $6.9 million in 2014, 26 percent ahead of budget.
I write this for one reason and one reason only – HELLO ANY ONE OF YOU 136 so called (and self-proclaimed) ‘Championship Golf Courses’ in the Coachella Valley. This event location proves that if you get your stuff together, you can not only raise revenue but notoriety, as well as increase the economy as a whole. This Valley likes to think we’re super special. We’re surrounded by hard-working grinders who, for 6 or 7 months, bust their butts so that a few Canadian and locals can hopefully play at or around 4 hours all the while not shoot 127 (so they come back, see PGA West Stadium J). With the Valley losing the once great Bob Hope Classic, the writings on the wall. Anyone remember the Skins Game? Ya, that was once pretty fun too. Without using Google, what’s the title sponsor of the Dinah Shore this year? I had never heard of them either.
The Valley courses better stop congratulating each other on how great they all are and start actually doing something that gets us back on the map. More people under 29 visited the desert to attend 3 Festivals in the one month then from the months of November to May to play golf (Expedia.com). The managers and executives are asleep at the wheel cashing their cushy checks while they wait till June and their vacation time kicks in. Sad, how far we’ve NOT come in regards to being the Golf Capital of America, Playground of the Presidents, Spring Break Capital on the West Coast. Those were titles given long ago, and have since grown old like our demographic. In some ways the Valley is better with the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals. Palm Springs is kinda fun. And the weather is still nice. But one can’t sit back and not admit that our beloved Valley is living off of checks cashed long ago.
