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.

The fifteenth at Chambers Bay (C.J. Anderson)

In the second part of my interview with superintendent Dave Wieneke, he discusses the wall-to-wall use of fescue on at Chambers Bay. A mature strand of fescue will play very fast, allowing for the bump and run shots that the course calls for, but achieving this level of density and health takes time. Chambers Bay has also been extremely popular (39,000 rounds in 2008) which has meant a high amount of traffic on the young fescue. While the fairways seem to have come in very well, there are a few spots on the greens that had to be re-sodded this winter. (video after jump)

Dave admits that the greens are the place that have been hardest to establish. It seems that the worst spots are along the edge of greens pinched by a bunker. The foot traffic is funneled in these spots and it is almost impossible to get them dense and healthy.

Chambers Bay’s greens are filled with bold contour and are not meant to be particularly fast. The use of fescue, which can not be mowed too tightly, prevents the greens from ever getting too fast. This has proven to be a point of contention with some of the paying public who are used to lightning fast, bent grass greens. Because the fescue on the greens is still relatively immature, Dave has not been able to get the greens to the speeds that he desires, but in this video he explains what he has been doing to get them rolling faster.

In the last part of the video, Dave talks about their management of the faux-dunes created by Robert Trent Jones Jr. These were seeded directly into the bulldozer tracks and early pictures of the place showed the tracks quite starkly. Some areas have come in quite well and others not so well. Dave discusses these problem spots and what he is doing to address them.

Clearly the wind and weather have eroded some of the tracks, making them look a lot better. Dave’s main concern is getting the areas where the seed did not establish to grow in. This of course is a very delicate task. Over watering and over fertilizing will make these areas a nightmare for anyone unfortunate enough to hit the ball there. Chamber’s Bay has wisely been very cautious about trying to overstimulate these faux-dunes and this has helped make the course playable for all levels of players.

Foe more of the interview with Dave Wieneke  see here. For the interview with Chamebr’s Bay GM Matt Allen see here.