Robert Trent Jones Jr. sculpts world-class Linksland Masterpiece

When all the golf course designs had been submitted for the proposed Chambers Bay course in early 2004, Bruce Charlton, partner in the famed Robert Trent Jones design company, wanted to leave one final impression on the Pierce County decision makers. He handed out bag tags that read: Chambers Bay — Site of the 2020 U.S. Open. “We told them, ‘This is just to let you guys know, here’s where we think we can take it,’” Charlton recalled. It’s not certain if that pushed them over the top, but the RTJ architects won the design bid and next month their remarkable three-year transformation project officially will be unveiled. The Jones designers, given an abandoned and degraded gravel mining pit, turned it into a sparkling links-style layout on the edge of the Puget Sound. Chambers Bay Golf Course is this region’s most wildly anticipated opening in memory. And among those taking a keen interest are executives from the United States Golf Association (USGA), which decides on the locations for future U.S. Opens. The 610-acre site, used for gravel operations for more than 100 years, was purchased by the county in 1995 for $33 million. There had been various proposed uses for the land but Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg wanted to hold it in the public trust. He didn’t want to sub-divide it and he had an unshakable myopic vision for a world-class golf course. He pushed hard for a links course, open to the public, not country club exclusivity. “We had the ability to do something unparalleled,” said Charlton, whose company was selected from 56 other proposals. “We really took a close, hard look at what Pierce County was saying. The county executive asked us, ‘Why can’t this be the Pacific Northwest’s Pebble Beach?’ That was music to our ears.” Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who took over the company from his father in 1974 and has designed more than 230 courses around the world, said when he first set foot on the property he imagined himself as the course architect version of Michelangelo at the Carrara marble pits. Oh, what he could shape this land into.

• Yardage: Teal — 7,585; Navy — 7,109; Sand — 6,541; White — 6,011
• Cost: Pierce County residents: $85 Mon-Thurs, $100 weekends
  Non-Pierce County residents: $135 Mon-Thurs, $150 weekends
• Caddy Fees: $35 plus gratuity
• Location: 6320 Grandview Dr W, University Place, WA 98467
• Opening Day: June 23, 2007
• More Info: 877-295-4657 • www.chambersbaygolf.com

“Ladenburg was the pope here and we hoped he chose us,” Jones said. “After the design review, we were chosen I think because we had the most passion.” It was a massive undertaking. The course design carved up more than 250 acres of the property, which was overrun with pesky blackberry bushes, scotch broom and swampy sediment ponds. But it had two elements essential to golf course building — tons of sand and a ready supply of water, both from a huge aquafir under the site and reclaimed water from the sewage-treatment plant south of the property. The sand, a byproduct of the mining operations, was in giant piles. Much of the $23 million spent on the project went to moving 1.4 million cubic yards of sand, cleaning and screening it, then replacing it along the entire layout, 12 inches deep. Ladenburg has been credited by virtually everyone as the visionary who set the standard high for the course. He wanted it be a lasting and nationally known symbol for the Tacoma area.