The US Open is being played this year on Fathers' Day weekend at the Chambers Bay Golf Course near Tacoma WA. Of interest to rail fans is the fact that the busy BNSF mainline tracks are located right next to this golf course. Over the course of the tournament viewers should be able to see plenty of BNSF and Amtrak action (with an occasional UP train added in). The Coast Starlight Superliners and AmtrakCascades Talgos will pass very close to the 17th hole and I'm sure that the trains will be used as backdrops for many television shots.
FOX Sports will be televising the event. There is a video at the bottom of the link that shows the golf course, the railroad tracks and even a quick shot of a passing freight train.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
A good photo appears within this article in Today's Wall Street Journal.
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
The tournament tees off today (Thursday) and concludes on Sunday (Fathers' Day). Weather is expected to be a mix of sunshine, clouds and a chance of rain on Friday. Amtrak should be running on schedule.
Posted by yukon11 (Member # 2997) on :
I just tuned in the US Open. I did see play at hole 17 but didn't see any moving trains (does UP have nearby track or is it just BNSF?). I did see some red boxcars at hole 17 but they weren't moving.
Sort of a funny looking golf course. Not much green grass. I guess that's because it's near the oceanfront. It also looks like a tough course. I'll bet the winner's score wont be much below par.
Richard
PS - I just saw a replay of a chip shot on hole #16 with a moving freight train going by. It looked like one of the cars had a UP logo.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
We were watching the U.S. Open at our local bar last evening, but of course the sound was turned off. Somebody apparently got hurt on the course yesterday -- does anyone know who it was and what happened?
Judging by the appearance of the golf course on TV, this golf course is obviously in central/eastern Washington in the dry "scablands" part of the state. I assume the RR adjacent to the golf course is one of the BN lines which cross Washington State -- is this the line the Empire Builder currently uses, or the former SP & S(?) southern route?
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
The terrain of the golf course does look like eastern WA--particularly the rolling hills around Walla Walla--but the course is just outside of Tacoma and the rail line is the BNSF mainline between Seattle and Portland. Before becoming a golf course the property was a mainly used as a sand and gravel pit. That's why it looks so industrial and scabby.
I know Tiger Woods fell on his butt yesterday and one of the leaders was having trouble with vertigo.
Usually I'm not a golf fan but I must confess that I've watched about 5 hours of this tournament on TV. The coverage on Thursday seemed to focus almost exclusively on Tiger Woods' meltdown rather than the other players. There also was a nice segment about the trains that run along the course. I haven't been able to find a link to the clip, but it showed a lot of trains. I think the trains will get a significant amount of coverage this weekend.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Rich, the player who was injured is Jason Day, who is a contender.
The Golf Channel's commentator noted that the train's come by about every twenty minutes. Let's see if Fox, the network carrying the play, will air any "pans" of "the action".
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Finally, that course sure don't look like Agusta National (Masters).
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
Apparently Amtrak got the message about trains being part of the coverage. Yesterday I saw a close-up shot of 509 in complete Talgo Cascades livery heading to Portland. Looked good.
Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :
Thanks, Gil--
Yeah, that course looks like it is closer to Walla Walla than to Tacoma.
I actually found the golf course on my railroad route guides, with the help of Google Earth (I even included an item about the golf course in the narration for my Railroad Guide #36a!). The golf course was formerly part of an Abitibi gravel pit, approximately 2.5 miles north of Steilacoom. Is that right, Vincent?
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
Yes, that is the location of the course. I'm not enough of a geologist to know if it was an Abitibi gravel pit, but it definitely was a gravel and sand operation before becoming a golf course. For me, it's usually about 10 minutes before or after the Tacoma station stop.
The after-event commentary seems to suggest that the USGA will be coming back to Chambers Bay in the future, but the course is going to undergo some significant changes. One commenter said that the "greens looked like broccoli" and I'd have to agree. Visually it was a great course, but the bumpy, roller coaster greens and too many sand traps kind of made it difficult for me to appreciate the tournament.
Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :
Vincent - The reference to the Abitibi gravel pit came from one of the sources I use to compile my railroad guides.