UNIVERSITY PLACE – There hasn't always been a Grand View here.
"Huge fence, barbed wire, it looked like a prison," says John Ladenburg, as he stood just below Grandview Drive. "The gravel operators planted all those trees up on top, and so the entire grand view disappeared."
It wasn't that long ago, the now former Pierce County Executive stood here, and wondered if the area could be reclaimed for another purpose.
"(I said) we get the public back on this piece of property," says Ladenburg, who began pitching the County, as early as 2002, on the idea of converting an old 230-acre gravel pit into a golf course.
The price tag, at the time, seemed steep: $20 million. But Ladenburg says, he says an opportunity in the rough.
"A lot of people didn't understand the business model for a government to do this, but we didn't reinvent the wheel. Bethpage Black in New York (did it), owned by the State of New York."
That course has hosted two US Opens.
Ladenburg pitched his colleagues, that if the County built the course, the USGA would come.
They did.
Months after the course opened to golfers, in 2007, the USGA selected Chambers Bay to be the host of the 2015 Championship.
Today, there are roughly 300 temporary structures, and 16,000 seats around the course. The County estimates it will bring in $140 million in economic development to the region, although those numbers can often be tough to pin down.
"That's a pretty good return on our $20 million golf course," said Ladenburg, with a smile.
The course also features a walking trail, playground, and public fields, all closed during the championship. The County has not followed through on promises to build a hotel, or grand clubhouse, but Ladenburg says he believes current County Executive Pat McCarthy has been fiscally responsible with proceeding with the plans, and that "you don't want to build a mobile home next to a mansion."
That future could also rely on how Chambers Bay performs during the course of this week, the actualization of the vision Ladenburg had just over a decade ago.
"This course is going to be here 100 years, we want to get it right."
