Tiger Says Chambers Bay Could be 'Brutal'


After visiting Chambers Bay earlier this week Tiger Woods hedged on how the site of 115th U.S. Open will ultimately play. "Depends how it's set up," Woods told reporters Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Ohio, site of this week's Memorial Tournament, which he's won five times.

The 14-time major champion, including three U.S. Opens, said the field at the venue in Washington State will be at the whims of USGA executive director, Mike Davis, who sets up the national championship.

Davis has said the options for how Chambers Bay will play on a day-to-day basis are myriad, allowing him and USGA staff a vast variety of choices, including turning a par-4 into a par-5 - and a par-5 into a par-4 to keep the overall course par at 70 - and placing the tee blocks on flat areas as well as down-, side- and uphill lies on these ribbon-like areas. Three par-4s are drive-able, while another par-4 is almost 550 yards.

The all-fescue, Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed layout alongside Puget Sound also boasts considerable elevation changes and can be stretched upwards of 7,900 yards, which isn't likely even during golf's biggest tournament that seeks to annually identify the best player.

"Obviously it's not going to be (7,900 yards). So what combinations is Mike going to present us?" Woods said. "Mike could make it to where it's just brutal or he can make it to where it's pretty easy and give us a combination of both, and then switch it up on every other hole. That's going to be the interesting part, just trying to figure that out."

As for the tee blocks, Woods added, "When Mike says something like that, you've got to pay attention to it, because he's an extremely bright man," Woods said. "And we got out there and it was like, 'Oh, my God, there's so many different options here.' I don't take a long time in practice rounds, but we played in three and a half hours, just the front nine, had lunch, kind of sat down there and talked about it and played another three and a half on the back.

"And the next day was a little bit quicker, because we knew what to expect, what lines to take."

The weather, which in this part of the Pacific Northwest in mid-June can vary virtually hour to hour from rain, winds and bright sun, will also be a factor in how Chambers Bay will be set up. "It's very challenging in the sense that Mike has so many options that he can present us as challenges off the tees or into the greens," Woods said.

"There are so many different numbers that you have to know off the tees and how that's going to play. There's just so many options. Generally you look at old-school U.S. Opens, and it is narrow fairways, high rough, miss it, hack out, try and make a par from the fairway. At Chambers Bay, there's so many different landing areas and aggressive or passive lines.

"You can run the ball up, 40 feet, 50 feet, even sometimes 30 yards right of the green or left of the green, and it comes back to 10 feet. It's a different type of golf course. We don't even see this in British Opens because (the greens) aren't banked like those at Chambers Bay."

Woods will be seeking his 15th major title, and his first since the 2008 U.S. Open which was also held at another open-to-the-public course, Torrey Pines in San Diego.