CHAMBERS BAY- PART THREE

Chambers Bay on a sunny afternoon (C.J. Anderson)

In this final installment of my interview with Dave Wieneke, superintendent of Chambers Bay, he talks about the importance of educating the player about links golf. This task involves getting the golfer to understand the different types of shots needed to score well at Chambers Bay and also the playing characteristics of the fescue fairways and greens (video after jump)

After talking with both Dave and GM Matt Allen, it seems that the main complaint that they hear about Chambers Bay pertains to the speed of the greens. This is to be expected as the average golfer plays Chambers after having recently played a course with bent grass greens and few, if any, contours in the greens. I know Dave and the rest of his team are working very hard to increase speeds on the greens to a level that is appropriate for the amount of movement that they have. Chambers Bay is less than two years old and it often takes longer than this for fine fescue grass to mature into a dense putting surface that can be mowed tighter for faster green speeds. (for an update on conditions, check here)

The Chambers Bay website is one of the best I have ever seen in reaching out to the public and trying to educate them about the course and links golf. Dave has a monthly newsletter that he uses to update people on changes to the course and also some basic agronomy. There is also a monthly “ask the architect” section that is worth a quick glance on a rainy day.

The final section of this video deals with the USGA and what they are looking for at Chambers Bay. While there will be a narrowing of some fairways, the thing that the USGA seems most concerned about is maintaining firm and fast conditions and a pure fescue golf course. I commend their dedication to playing this links design under these conditions, but am somewhat miffed by all of this religious devotion to a pure fescue playing surface. Poa Annua is evident in just about all of the great green surfaces in the world and it seems the chance of it establishing then dying back due to heat and humidity would be fairly slim in this temperate climate. It will be interesting to see how this develops over time.

For more with Dave Wieneke, click here, and here.

For an interview with Matt Allen, Chambers Bay’s GM, click here and here.