Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Speith and all of the top golfers in the world will be converging on Tacoma, WA along with thousands of golf fans for the United States Open Championship that is being held at Chambers Bay Golf Course from June 15 to June 21.
This prestigious major golf championship has never been held in the Northwest before. The only major golf championship ever hosted in the Northwest is modern times was the 1998 PGA Championship held at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, won by Vijay Singh. Singh is among 79 top golfers who are automatically qualified to compete in the United States Open this year. The U.S. Open is unique among the major professional golf tournaments in that theoretically, you or I could qualify, because there are qualifying tournaments around the country for just a few open spots, with nearly 10,000 golfers attempting to survive the qualifying tournaments to gain entry into the U.S. Open.
All hotel rooms in the Puget Sound region are being booked to capacity.
The U.S. Open Championship is like the Super Bowl of golf. Millions of television viewers around the world will be focused on the around the clock coverage of this event.
Chambers Bay Golf Course is located along the shores of Puget Sound in University Place in an otherwise quiet residential area. There are no traffic arterials immediately accessing the golf course and there will be no parking at the golf course. Shuttle buses will be providing transportation to event-goers from parking lots around the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup and Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood.
We should all be prepared for and expect increased traffic congestion and gridlock during the week of the U.S. Open, which will no doubt bring a large infusion into the local economy during that week. So expect traffic congestion that week, and if you’re not a golf fan, it might be a good week to get out of town.
