Player opinion divided by controversial Chambers Bay

The linksy feel of Chambers Bay has not endeared championship organisers the USGA to a section of golfers who prefer the manicured parkland target golf they enjoy most weeks on the PGA Tour.

Nor do they like the unknown quantity it represents having been built just eight years ago on the site of a disused quarry on the shores of the Puget Sound. There has been just one championship staged here, when the USGA staged the 2010 US Amateur, won by Peter Uihlein. Only 11 players from that week’s field are returning this week, including current Masters champion Jordan Spieth and he failed to qualify for the final matchplay stages.

So with very little prior knowledge of the course, players were further irked when the USGA’s executive director Mike Davis, the man responsible for setting up the course this week, further stoked the disquiet by suggesting they should all make the effort to do some homework on Chambers Bay.