After spending most of his life in Oregon he and his family moved to San Diego, California in 2001 where he spent four years as USGA Southwest Regional Green Section Agronomist consulting with hundreds of golf courses throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada.

In 2004 David became Director of Golf Course Maintenance for the private 36 hole Braemar Country Club in Tarzana, CA until returning to the Pacific Northwest as golf course superintendent for Chambers Bay on July 5, 2006.  Since arriving in University Place, WA David helped build Chambers Bay from a sand pile to a brand new eagerly anticipated championship quality links style golf course that opened June 23, 2007. 

Chambers Bay has been acknowledged by groups throughout the USA including the first and so far only Audubon International Signature certified golf course in the Pacific Northwest, and host to the 2010 US Amateur Championship and the 2015 US Open Championship.  Most recently Chambers Bay was named No. 46 best of The Top 100 US Courses, No. 77 of the Top 100 World Courses in the October 2009 issue of Golf Magazine.

Chambers Bay will be the first links style 100% fescue golf course to host a US Open, the first Audubon International Signature certified golf course to host a US Open Championship, and the first public golf course to host a U.S. Amateur Championship.

Chambers Bay Championship Preparations

The following highlight some of our activities aimed at getting our course ready to host some of the world’s best golfers as Chambers Bay and the Home Course host the 2010 US Amateur Championship August 23 to 29, 2010.  We are proud to be the first public golf courses to host the US Amateur Championship in its 110 year history.  In a word we have been very busy.    

New Tees – 9 new championship tees were built at the request of the USGA to lengthen our play yardage and to add flexibility of teeing options to the course.  New tees were added to No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, and 17.  The new No. 10 championship tee will also be used for No. 1 in some flights.  The net effect will be an addition of 253 yards for a total of 7,838 yards for the course.

No. 4 green complex –  We completed a new redesign and rebuild of the No. 4 green complex that includes all new bunkers, approach, green, and the upper 30% of the fairway leading to the green complex.

No. 5 – The alternate green on No. 5 (i.e. 5B) has been rebuilt since both greens will be in play during different Championship flights to add play flexibility.  The new No. 4 Green and 5B Greens will be open for play several days per week beginning in May or June.

Bunkers – Our staff have become master craftsmen in bunker construction having rebuilt and/or edged all in- play portions of the 90 acres of bunkering at Chambers Bay.  Our goal is to fulfill the Robert Trent Jones II design team visions of what the Pacific Northwest and Washington Golf Associations rating called “deep and extreme bunkering”.  The results are so visually stunning as to almost make you want your ball to land in them just to get a closer look. 

Dunes - Chambers Bay has over 95 acres of dunes that frame each golf hole and are associated with bunkers.  When the course was built the dune seeding was done in August and September without the benefit of irrigation or rain water.  As a consequence many dunes are missing complete dune turf growth as originally envisioned.  We have just completed the second year of extensive hydroseeding which is an integral part of our ecosystem management of the dunes.  We are also installing new irrigation and removing noxious and invasive weeds to stabilize the ecosystem. More dune ecosystem work is needed after the US Amateur Championship to achieve the full habitat potential of this component of the golf course to be ready for the 2015 US Open.

Links Golf and Fescue Turf – Distinctive & Unique:  Sand is applied almost every month throughout the year to maintain the firm fast playing turf that defines the Links golf experience.  Since putting surface mowing height is 0.20” to 0.25” the sand and grooming are needed to provide acceptable ball roll since traditional lower mowing heights are not tolerated by the fine fescue.  We have already topdressed our greens including surrounds and approaches twice since March 1 and plan to continue this through the end of July.  Fairways are also topdressed frequently to develop ball rolls between 50 and 75 yards.  Yes that means the greens have a different feel than most other golf courses.  Chambers Bay is a golf experience designed and maintained so it can be played and savored for what it is: a premier links golf experience.

Volunteers still needed – We currently have 38 volunteers signed up to help The Home Course and Chambers Bay prepare Championship conditions throughout the event.  We need at least 10 to 20 more to step up and volunteer.  Please join in this effort that already has volunteers from 4 countries and representatives working from at least 7 states already on board.  Take the 1st step to help us out by filling out and emailing orfaxing a Volunteer Release Form back to me as soon as possible.

Countdown to the 2010 US Amateur Championship –   For more up to the minute information and details visit our website www.2010usamateur.com.