'They throw a fantastic social gathering': Chambers Bay considers LIV Golf occasion

Ever since Chambers Bay hosted a controversial (and unquestionably compelling) U.S. Open in 2015, the golf world has contemplated one query.

When will a professional golf match return?

On Friday afternoon, a narrative within the Tacoma News Tribune gave us our first concrete clues in direction of a solution — and (spoiler!) it consists of LIV Golf.

The TNT story cites an interview with Pierce County government counsel Don Anderson, who works underneath county government Bruce Dammeier. Pierce County is the native municipality surrounding Chambers Bay and likewise the golf course’s owner, which the county operates as one of many United States’ most interesting municipal tracks.

Within the years since internet hosting the ’15 U.S. Open, Pierce County has overseen a number of renovations and tweaks to the golf course within the hopes of internet hosting one other U.S. Open or main skilled golf match (most notably resurfacing the greens from fescue to poa annua within the aftermath of the U.S. Open). However, within the years since internet hosting in ’15, the USGA has more and more indicated that one other U.S. Open in Pierce County is unlikely. The USGA has introduced each U.S. Open host by 2042, and Chambers Bay hasn’t been included on the listing.

Lots of the points with internet hosting a national-championship-level occasion at Chambers Bay are logistical: The course is constructed right into a hillside, and the expertise from a hospitality and fan standpoint is seen as beneath the USGA’s (usually appreciable) gallery and build-out requirements. The USGA has had no downside bringing smaller-scale occasions to Chambers, together with the U.S. Girls’s Novice and 4-Ball, but it surely has withheld from bringing its two greatest moneymakers (the U.S. Open and U.S. Girls’s Open) again to the Pacific Northwest.

Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped Chambers Bay from attempting. In line with Anderson, representatives from Performance 54, the shadowy advertising and marketing company for LIV Golf, reached out to Pierce County to arrange a dialog about internet hosting a LIV occasion — and the county is all ears.

“LIV has its personal points although, golf politics, world politics-wise. It’s a must to watch out there,” Anderson informed TNT’s Jon Manley. “They throw a fantastic social gathering, although. 54 golfers, 54 holes, shotgun begin. You generate $5 million or so in concession and merchandise gross sales. From that side, they’re very enticing. In the event that they observe up with their oblique inquiry, we’ll hear.”

After all, there’s no scarcity of considerations with internet hosting a LIV occasion for a public-owned property like Chambers Bay. The league is funded virtually solely by the Saudi Public Funding Fund, which might make internet hosting a LIV occasion tantamount to accepting cash from the Saudis — a brutal authoritarian regime with an appalling human rights file. Related selections have turned lots of LIV’s gamers into pariahs in recent times, although public notion seems to be shifting on the league because the PGA Tour enters late-stage negotiations to just accept Saudi funding of its personal.

For LIV, Chambers Bay represents many issues the league has not but present in a match host: (1) a visually distinctive golf course (2) in america (3) that’s already within the public eye and (4) would air on primetime tv. The course’s proximity to a serious metropolitan space (Seattle/Tacoma) and its basic cult following amongst hardcore golf followers solely makes it extra compelling from a enterprise standpoint.

As Anderson alluded, the upside of internet hosting a males’s professional golf occasion for Chambers Bay is cold-hard money. For a municipality like Pierce County, a weekend of professional golf may herald thousands and thousands in income for taxpayers, which turns it into a gorgeous possibility for a public-owned course, politics be damned.

Anderson mentioned the county has largely tried to guard its relationship with the USGA since 2015, pushing away presents from different potential golf stakeholders within the hopes of one other U.S. Open. However with the longer term wanting glum to these ends, the course has begun to discover choices for different professional golf occasions. LIV is a type of choices — and maybe essentially the most energetic possibility — however the PGA Championship and PGA Tour have additionally been thought of.

“With respect to the U.S. Open, I believe our greatest shot is being the enticing cousin who’s a backup date when your promenade date can’t go,” Anderson mentioned. “That’s what occurred the primary time. The 2015 U.S. Open was awarded to Winged Foot. It got here to Chambers after they mentioned they wanted to place this off.”

For Pierce County, a giant chunk of internet hosting an occasion at Chambers is the top-line income, which helps fund all kinds of taxpayer expenditures, however there are downstream advantages, too. As is the case with many different high-end munis, the county makes much more income from out-of-state greens charges than it does from native residents. Internet hosting big-time occasions helps Chambers Bay elevate its profile within the golf mainstream, which solely helps enhance curiosity from out-of-staters.

The course remains to be performing nicely financially, Anderson mentioned, however there’s extra to working a golf course than simply the underside line. For considered one of America’s actually distinct golf exams, match golf is as a lot a enterprise alternative as a reputational one.

“You may’t run a golf course on a match each 25 years,” Anderson mentioned. “We’ll keep on having pretty common USGA tournaments. Something that will get on TV is nice. With any enterprise, you need to adapt to {the marketplace}. There could also be different issues concerned.”

(Learn the total story in The News Tribune here.)

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is a information and options editor at GOLF, writing tales for the web site and journal. He manages the Scorching Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and makes use of his on-camera expertise throughout the model’s platforms. Previous to becoming a member of GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse College, throughout which era he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Lengthy Island, the place he’s from. He will be reached at [email protected].