Smells Like Chambers Spirit

"All alone is all we are" - All Apologies

In the opening pages of the Chambers Bay yardage book there is a description of the spectacular surroundings of the course in which the term "visual nirvana" is used. This is quite a fitting phrase given the site of the 2015 US Open's proximity to the origins of Nirvana themselves (Messrs Cobain and Novoselic specifically).

The scenic state of Washington in the Pacific North West has been the source of the grunge scene, the setting for TV series such as Twin Peaks and Grey's Anatomy, the backdrop to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's antics in Sleepless In Seattle, the home of the 2014 Superbowl Champions and is a stronghold of US soccer, however this will be the first time the US Open golf has been hosted in the PNW region.

Golfing heritage here is relatively light in comparison to other corners of the US and Chambers Bay seems to have been a path less trodden by the elite, 2010 US Amateur aside. Much of the intrigue around the build-up to the event is based on the fact that many players, commentators and journalists have not seen the course and the particular stamp the USGA has applied to it for the tournament.

I am one of the fortunate ones. I have seen it. I have played it - twice. I have lived this visual nirvana and I even birdied the 11th and 15th holes in the process! I could say it was a shame that nobody was there to see it, but I'd like to think that someone was watching from above, maybe even Kurt Cobain himself (whose memorial I had visited a couple of days previously in Seattle).

The 20th of November 2012, when I played Chambers Bay twice in one day, was a day I remember vividly. The back nine in the afternoon in particular was a treat.

Having gone around with a member in the morning, I went back out in the afternoon for another 18 holes on my own, with some bad weather forecast. True enough it turned violent on the front nine as a nasty front rolled in from Puget Sound and battered the course for about a half an hour. I remember teeing off on the 7th in the middle of an epic downpour with no shelter in sight. It was a pressure situation because it is a brute of a hole and I wanted to play it well having made a mess of it in the morning. After I teed off it took me about ten minutes to get to my ball. Not because I had bombed it out of sight but because I had to crouch under my umbrella to protect both myself and my hired clubs from the howling wind and rain!

USGA officials were on site at the time overlooking some rework that was being undertaken to the 8th green and 9th tee. As I approached the temporary 8th green that was in use I noticed that the USGA officials and course staff were ploughing ahead with their duties despite the conditions. It was an interesting insight into the timescales involved in preparation for this week's US Open.

The rain continued through the turn but gradually became less biblical and was in fact beginning to subside as I teed off on the par four 11th. It stopped completely as I was about to play my second shot and I took full advantage. Needing a 3-wood to get to the green, I decided to take off a layer and proceeded to play my best shot of the day to 15 feet and made the putt.

The weather continued to improve as I strode up the 12th with renewed energy, and by the time I reached the green at the top of the hill, the sun had burst through. The picture I took when I turned around and looked back down the valley should have won a photography award.

On I went and by the time I had reached one of the high points of the course on the 14th tee, it had more or less turned into a summer's afternoon. As I surveyed the panorama below, I suddenly realised that I could not see any other golfers on the course. I had noticed a few defeated souls abandoning during some of the earlier showers, but I was still surprised to find that I had the entire place to myself on the back nine beneath skies that had turned blue and clear.

I stood on the 14th tee for what must have been ten minutes overlooking what had become my own kingdom below. Just thinking to myself "LOOK AT THIS".

I continued with this regal lord of the manor tone on to the 15th tee, lapping it up on one of the greatest par three holes ever created. It was just myself, the solitary tree behind the green 'Lone Fir', Puget Sound, a back-right pin and an 8-iron to 10 feet. Another easy birdie!

In the end I half regretted spending so much time on 14 and 15 because it was getting slightly dark as I came up the 18th. The driver of the courtesy van waiting to take me back to the clubhouse above had switched his lights on. This only added to the dramatic effect of the direction of the closing hole towards a Game of Thrones-esque high wall in the background, so it feels like you are not only playing into a natural grandstand at the green, but towards a natural grandstand overlooking the entire course. For players at the US Open it will feel like all of Washington State is watching you play the 18th.

"All alone is all we are" once said Kurt Cobain.  That was true in November 2012 but not in June 2015. When I am roaming about Chambers Bay every day this week along with 35,000 other spectators watching the best players in the world, it will seem all the more crazy to have had this place to myself that afternoon.