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Confidence Reigns At Chambers Bay As U.S. Open Nears

Tom Banse
/
Northwest News Network
Temporary bleachers and hospitality tents are sprinkled among the 18 holes of Chambers Bay Golf Course.

Organizers of the U.S. Open men's golf championship are exuding confidence that Chambers Bay Golf Course overlooking Puget Sound will be ready for the tee off in less than three weeks.

The U.S. Open is coming to the Northwest for the first time this year. National Championship Director Danny Sink said Friday he almost wishes he could "speed up the clock and get started tomorrow."

"We feel very comfortable with the overall planning of the championship -- from outside the ropes, from inside the ropes,” he said. “The golf course is in great shape. Our plans that we put in place are really coming into shape now. We really don't have any major issues at this point.”

Sink said the West Coast drought has not affected the course south of Tacoma, Washington.

Sink said workers are putting the finishing touches on bleachers, hospitality tents and greens. Forty-thousand people per day are expected to flock to Chambers Bay during the four-day run of the U.S. Open in mid-June.

Now semi-retired, Tom Banse covered national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports and human interest stories from across the Northwest. He reported from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events unfolded. Tom's stories can be found online and were heard on-air during "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.