BRIAN MCMANUS grew up playing Royal Country Down, one of the world's greatest golf courses and home to the 2007 Walker Cup, outside his native Belfast, Northern Ireland. The senior software developer at Meridio Ltd. doesn't play much golf anymore. Chambers Bay might change that.

"I've played plenty of great links in Northern Ireland, but I have to say this is the most spectacular course I've ever played," states McManus, as we stroll the ribbon tee toward our balls on the closing hole.

But Chambers Bay isn't just another pretty 18.The course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., is owned by Pierce County. The county's intention was to create a world-class facility that would increase everything from local property values to Tacoma's international stature.

"If you build it, they will come" has become a cliché, but in the case of this $21 million wager, the expression couldn't be more fitting. And come they have. Kemper Sports, which manages Chambers Bay, as well as Bandon Dunes and several other prominent golf resorts, reported that 13,000 tee times were sold the first eight weeks of the course's operation, 30 percent more than anticipated. In fact, so many golfers want to play the hilly "Irish links" course, Director of Golf and General Manager Joe Wisocki spaced the tee time's from10 to 12minutes, to ease the pressure on the course.

"One of the reasons to build a world-class course was to create the type of experience that was not only missing in Pierce County, but was absent in the entire state," explains Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, the initial visionary and primary guardian of the project.

"With this investment," Ladenburg continues, "we create a course that will actually generate revenue and bolster development. Think of Torrey Pines and Bethpage; both are owned by the local governments."

In addition to revenue generated from tee times ($10,000 in admission tax revenue the opening week), the restaurant and pro shop, there is the potential windfall of over $100 million if Chambers Bay is awarded a PGA Major Tournament in the future, a strong possibility if Golf Digest and other authorities of the game are to be believed. The USGA, which governs the event, clearly likes the idea of granting the world's most challenging professional golf tournament to municipal courses. Torrey Pines and Bethpage will host the 2008 and 2009 U.S. Opens, respectively.

"Bringing national tournaments here provides the region with income and notoriety," Ladenburg says. "Bringing the U.S. Open here would be the biggest event in this area since the 1962World's Fair."

Even without the fanfare of a golf major, the dovetails of Chambers Bay have begun to spread. University Place, home to the course, is moving forward with its $250million Town Center project, anchored by a commitment from a New York development group, which, after visiting, proposed building a 200-room luxury boutique hotel nearby.

Plans are also in the works for on-site accommodations, as well as a permanent clubhouse. The first phase of the Sound view Trail is already in place. The total trail system will stretch 12 miles, coupled with two miles of sandy beach, accessible via a pedestrian bridge, the next major construction on the site.

"This is a great reclamation project," Landenberg explains. "An abandoned rock quarry that becomes a unique recreational opportunity, a trail system, a five-acre park and 20-acre park, even an amphitheater. Plus, with a water treatment facility on the property, the course will use gray water exclusively by next spring."

Other, more fanciful plans arise almost daily.