At challenging Chambers Bay, 2015 U.S. Open will be like no other

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Billy Horschel is at the back of the range at TPC Sawgrass keeping his game sharp.

His mind, however, often drifts to a place three weeks down the road and 2,500 miles away. As he sends ball after ball toward the cup on a putting green and a target green on the range, the reigning FedExCup champion can't help but think of a 7,500-yard green bear with plenty of teeth waiting for him and his colleagues outside of Tacoma, Wash.

For the first time, the U.S. Open will be staged in the Pacific Northwest, at a remote setting by the sparkling waters of Puget Sound known as Chambers Bay Golf Course.

"We'll just have to wait to see what happens," Horschel said earlier this week of the upcoming U.S. Open. "The course is different. Very different."

Different indeed, a challenge unlike any other in the long history of the U.S. Open. Chambers Bay is a quirky 7.5-mile track, a links course featuring huge elevation changes and just one tree, massive green complexes with no collars around the putting surfaces, yawning bunkers and thousands of yards of fescue grass, heather and unkempt rough. While few of the 156 players have visited the course that opened in 2007 and will be the epicenter of golf June 18-21, many of those who have played it left the Evergreen State seeing red.

Ian Poulter tweeted that players who made scouting trips said the course was "a complete farce." Straight talkin' Texan Ryan Palmer said the greens are not worthy of a national championship, saying you might as well put "a quarter in the machine and take a ride." Then, as word of the reconnaissance started circulating among the players, U.S. Golf Association executive director Mike Davis added to the consternation by saying players would be wise to spend a lot more time than normal inspecting and studying the course.

"The idea of coming in and playing two practice rounds and having your caddie just walk it and using your yardage book, that person's done," Davis said. "Will not win the U.S. Open."

Horschel, who said Davis' comments came out of left field, visited Chambers Bay for the first time last week and, after playing two rounds, said the course, an old gravel and sand pit, was unique and interesting and holds an elevated potential to be baffling and disconcerting.

He said the course is visually stunning with spectacular views – "It rivals Pebble Beach and Pebble Beach is my favorite" – it is very long (it has seven par-4s that can stretch out beyond 500 yards) and is home to fairways that are generous and forgiving.

However, two matters have him concerned: the greens and the USGA officials who will set up the course.

"The course and the tournament will be defined by the hole locations," Horschel said. "I think the greens are playable if the USGA does a good job with hole locations. If they want to be stupid and make us look stupid out there they could easily do that with hole locations. And I'm not afraid to say it – there could be some controversial ones. It always seems that the USGA will think a hole location is just fine and it won't cause problems and then it turns out it's just awful. … I'm just hoping that the USGA is smart enough to understand that the greens are not normal."

Horschel likens the greens to a combination of those at Pinehurst No. 2, where the U.S. Open was played in 2014, and Augusta National – a lethal combo.

"You have the runoffs like Pinehurst No. 2 and the bumps and mounds and knobs you see at Augusta National, like at No. 14 with the three-tiered green," Horschel said. "The slopes can make us look foolish. And I think the sideboards could be a hindrance because if you try to use them and go just a little too far, then you're down a huge slope off the green.

" … You could end up 2 feet from the hole or 30 yards off the green."

This led to Horschel remembering the seventh hole, a dogleg-right par-4 of nearly 500 yards. He said if you cut the dogleg you could have 140 yards to the green. But then you better hold the green with your approach.

"If you don't get the ball up on the green, it will roll all the way back and you'll have 70 yards to the green," Horschel said.

Horschel, who will play 18 holes the Monday of the tournament and then nine holes each of the next two days, said he will concentrate on his iron play and lag putting to ready himself for the national championship.

And then he'll go to the first tee Thursday and give it a go.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Horschel said. "We've heard the USGA officials say how different, how unique this course is. I hope they remember that when they set it up for us."