America's St. Andrews: Linking Golf from its Past to its Future, Publicly-Owned Chambers Bay is the Dream Realized

America's St. Andrews

It was the longest of longshots, the ultimate risk-reward play.

Told with award-winning photography and extensive interviews with all the key players, "America's St. Andrews" tells the improbable backstory of how Chambers Bay, a newly-opened and untested publicly-owned facility on the shores of Puget Sound, was selected as the site of the first U.S. Open ever to be held in the Pacific Northwest.

Once an abandoned gravel mine, the property is now a municipal jewel, open to all, to golfers and non-golfers alike.

And now it is the site of the largest sporting event ever held in the Pacific Northwest - the 2015 U.S. Open.

Among the many people interviewed in the book are Mike Davis, the executive director of the United States Golf Association, who early on championed the course, seeing its possibilities for endless course set-ups to test the world's best golfers; Robert Trent Jones Jr. and his team of youngbloods at RTJ II, the architects of Chambers Bay, who saw this piece of property as the chance to re-establish the roots of the ancient game on American soil.

Also interviewed is former County Executive John Ladenburg, the bulldog who spent all the political clout he had on a daring dream that ultimately came true, and ultimately cost him his job.

The book also includes never-before-seen photos of the 2010 U.S. Amateur, held at Chambers Bay, as well as historical photos from the property's days as a source of riches for pioneer industrialists.

Publicly-owned Chambers Bay brings the ancient game into the future.

It is America's St. Andrews.