Pierce County Updates on 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay

​We haven’t yet entered the real media frenzy that will almost certainly begin to build in anticipation of the 2015 US Open coming to the Chambers Bay golf course, but that doesn’t mean that an awful lot of people haven’t been hard at work planning for the big event.

The Pierce County Council will be holding an in-district meeting to discuss plans so far next Thursday, June 27 at 5:30 p.m. in the Environmental Services Building. If you’re curious about the details as they come together, particularly if you’re what we might call a “stakeholder” who lives or owns a business in the blast zone of the US Open’s first Pacific Northwest venue, you might want to attend. 

Topics covered will include the USGA’s decision to select Chambers Bay as the site of the 2015 US Open, volunteer opportunities, ticket sales, logistics for spectators to visit the site, timelines for preparations, and other planning under way for the championship.

Some preparation is already being discussed. 12 of the 18 holes on the course have been tweaked in some way, large or small, to prepare the course for the event, and the USGA will build a temporary clubhouse for the players.

Locals are likely to be most affected by the traffic and other logistics of getting tens of thousands of people to and from the course, and giving them somewhere to eat, sleep, and spend their off-course time over the week of the Open.

An interesting side note: if you’ve got a home anywhere near the action (and near appears to be relative), and you’re willing to get out of town, you may be able to turn a tidy profit on visitors. A site called eventhomes.com already shows a couple pages of listings for homes in Tacoma, Lakewood, and University Place available for the week of the Open. The range of prices starts at $250 a night, but $2,500 doesn’t seem to be an uncommon price.

So, are you starting to get excited for the action?