Try this on for size: The 2015 U.S. Open Championship is going to resemble the (British) Open Championship. Shocking, no? That was my reaction too. I’ve heard about this fantastic new track called Chambers Bay that recently opened near Tacoma, Washington. By all reports, it is a real links course, much like Bandon Dunes several hours drive down the coast. What a fantastic brand of golf to import from our friends in the British Isles! But who knew that the USGA was considering putting two Major Championships there so soon? Those of us unlucky enough not to live in that part of the country will get to preview the course in 2010 when the U.S. Amateur is contested there.

Perhaps even greater than it being a pure links golf course is the fact that Chambers Bay is a municipal facility. That means you, I and anybody else with enough sense to make a tee time can play this course should we have the desire. The USGA gets a lot of grief for many things, but in this case cannot be congratulated enough for the recent trend of expanding the rota for our national championship to include courses that Joe Public can play. As we are able to play all of the Open Championship courses in the U.K., that’s another fine idea imported from our golfing friends overseas.

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