Ryan Palmer on Chambers Bay greens: 'It's not a championship course'

Steve DiMeglio | USA TODAY Sports

SAN FRANCISCO — The start of the U.S. Open is still seven weeks away.

The start of the annual grumbling among players about the championship has already started. The nation's championship is perhaps the most thorough examination of a player's mettle, what with the high rough, thin fairways and fast greens combining to test the nerves of even the calmest of players. But this year's setting – Chambers Bay Golf Course outside of Tacoma, Wash. – is a ticking bomb that could detonate an onslaught of criticism from the players.

"As far as the greens are concerned, it's not a championship golf course," said Ryan Palmer, a straight talking Texan and standup guy who played Chambers Bay on Monday before heading to Wednesday's opening day of the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play at TPC Harding Park. Palmer lost, 4 and 2, to Anirban Lahiri. "Not with the way some of the greens are and the pin placements they can put out there."

Palmer's description of Chambers Bay wasn't the first salvo fired at Chambers Bay. While very few of the game's best have played the course, which by the way, has one and only one tree on it, word of mouth is quickly spreading about the links course by the Puget Sound.

Ian Poulter tweeted Tuesday that he had talked to some players who had been to the course and they told him it was a "farce." USGA executive director Mike Davis said in a news conference Monday that some of the tee boxes could be set up on uphill, downhill or side hill slopes, which would be a first in a major championship, let alone on any professional tournament.

Davis also said two holes – the first and 18th – could switch pars during the tournament June 18-21, with each playing as a par-4 one day and as a par-5 the next.

"Tee to green the course is OK. It's not bad," Palmer said. "It's a great piece of land, great scenery. Very fair off the tee."

But … "We played it soft. The greens were rolling 9s (on the Stimpmeter). If they get it rolling 10 and 12, it will be interesting," Palmer said of the massive green complexes on the course. The greens feature large mounds, plenty of bumps and are largely unpredictable and will bring luck and plenty of it into play. "Put a quarter in the machine and go for a ride.

" … The green complexes are something else. With some of the pin placements, you will see some guys play it 30 yards left, 30 yards right or 30 yards long, and next thing you know you'll have a 2 footer. Or you'll be 75 feet from the pin. … You have to spend so much time on the greens, practice rounds are going to take eight hours. Every green has like five or six greens on it."

But Palmer's consternation with Chambers Bay is more about what the US. Golf Association might do with the setup than it is with the course.

"(Davis') idea of tee boxes on down hills, up hills and side hills is ridiculous. That's not golf. I don't care what anybody says," Palmer said. "It will get a lot of bad press from the players. It is a joke. I don't understand it. I just don't know why they would do it."