Former Rebel Moore relishes homecoming on Puget Sound

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Sitting in a tent overlooking the shores of Puget Sound, Ryan Moore couldn’t figure out if he was home or on a golf course 5,000 miles away.

The former UNLV Rebel, who will play in his 12th U.S. Open this week, grew up and attended high school in Puyallup, Wash. — just 15 miles away from 2015 host Chambers Bay Golf Course.

But the links-style track, opened in 2007, is more reminiscent of something in Scotland than the greater Tacoma area, Moore said Monday.

“It’s not too dissimilar to what we play in British Open championships,” Moore said. “It looks very much like this.”

With firm, banked fairways, fine fescue greens and all but one tree overlooking Puget Sound, Chambers Bay is the closest to a links-style course in U.S. Open history, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis told the media Monday.

This year’s national championship will also mark the first time in 45 years the U.S. Open has debuted on a new course and the first time it has ever been played in Washington.

“The firmness, the speed is what makes this a championship condition course,” Davis said. “There’s just more precision needed.”

For Moore, his homecoming at Chambers Bay is hardly home-cooking. Though he said he has played the course in the past, trying to control shots around its firmed U.S. Open greens can be unpredictable.

The arbitrary nature of the course’s firmness levels the playing field, Moore said, leaving golfers at the mercy of both its condition and the weather.

“It’s just a little bit tougher because you can’t just get up and do what you want to do,” he said. “You have to hit it 25, 30 feet away from the pin instead of trying to squeeze one back there.”

“You can’t force your will on the golf course, you have to let the course kind of give you what it can,” he added.

Moore and former Rebel Charley Hoffman were among several players practicing as early as last Wednesday for Thursday’s opening round.

“I think (Davis) scared some people when he was talking about the conditions out here,” Moore laughed. “So a lot of guys came out early this year.”

Moore said he’s expecting a large showing of friends, family and relatives in the gallery this week — something he admitted could be both motivating and distracting.

“This could be the one time in my entire life I get to play a tournament in my backyard, where I grew up,” he said. “It’s actually kind of an odd feeling.”

But Moore said there would be few better places to win than his own backyard. With a career-best 12th place finish at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst and a 12th place finish at the Masters in April, he may not be far off.

“It would be incredible,” he said, “but there’s a lot of golf to be played.”