2015 US Open Championship Director Danny Sink talks with PGA Professionals Gene Weldon and Jimmy Biggs on this special edition of TGD. This year’s US Open Championship will be held at Chambers Bay Golf Club in University Place Washington right on Puget Sound. This is the first time the US Open will be held in the Pacific Northwest, the first time this event is held on a course with primarily fine fescue grass and just the fourth time the Championship will be on a municipal course.
Built in just 2007 on the site of a sand and gravel mine and owned by Pierce County, this spectacular facility has already hosted the 2010 US Amateur Open. Currently this 100% public course is still accepting tee times just 60 some days before the big event and those playing are being treated to the sights and sounds of what goes into making the US Open Courses, US Open Courses, as well as all of the logistical work around the grounds. Danny talks to Gene and Jimmy about what he thinks having the US Open in this region will do for fans and golfers int he area as well as the players traveling to this part of the country, some for the first time. 
Danny tells Gene and Jimmy that Chambers Bay is a thinking mans golf course, links style, that will favor a high accurate ball striker. He fells that the player who wins will be one of those that does their homework. Players will not able to take the ball directly at the pins for example. They will have to play it off the back siding or side siding. He also mentions that 95% of the field have never played the course and most haven’t played on fine fescue very much. He reiterates that the guys who thoroughly prepare will have a huge advantage.
For all those fantasy golf lovers, listen as he mentions five names of those he thinks may do well. Both Gene and Jimmy took notes as they are enthralled in a major battle in their league. Danny talks about Phil Mickelson who is known to arrive two weeks early and spend as much as 3 hours on every green studying what the ball will do from every angle, dissecting the course for his game. He says Jordan Spieth may have an edge as his caddie Michael Greller has caddied at the course and Jordan has played it before. Next he says it was nice to see Tiger Woods in the mix at Augusta which sounded like a hint that he thought he would play well at Chambers Bay, but then went on to call Rory the best player in the game. He followed that up by saying with his experience growing up in Northern Ireland, playing links style courses in the wind and rain, that he should fare will. Lastly Danny said that Ricky Fowler was one of his favorite players and that he thought Ricky’s game set up great for Chambers Bay. So there it is from the Tournament Directors mouth to your fantasy golf lineups.
Moving from fantasy golf talk to talk about the US Open Championship in general, Gene asked Danny if he thought there would ever be another back to back mens’-ladies’ event like Pinehurst hosted in 2014. He responded that there weren’t many facilities out there who could handle that agronomally, keeping the course up to US Open standards for back to back tournaments like Pinehurst was able to do so for that reason probably not, but added they they were not ruling it out and when back in Pinehurst we may see that again. That was such a great opportunity to talk more about the women’s event and see them out practicing but as Danny said, they got very lucky with the weather and had their been another delay, there would have been significant issues. In the end the answer was possibly down the road.
Click the player above to listen in to this entire interview with Danny Sink, 2015 US Open Championship Director, and PGA Professionals Gene Weldon and Jimmy Biggs for an insight as you prepare to watch this great event for the first time from the Pacific Northwest. The views are spectacular as the golf should be. Thank you for interacting with us here at The Golf Director and we hope to see you out there in the fairways.
