Located along Puget Sound near Tacoma, the site for Chambers Bay was a former gravel mine, so any golf course would have been a big improvement. But Chambers Bay, which opened in 2007, isn’t just any course.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi, the 2015 U.S. Open host now welcomes wildlife, which has returned in droves. The course converts bio-solid waste from a nearby waste-treatment facility into fertilizer. And a satellite-linked irrigation system with weather-monitoring system cut water use by 17.3 percent last year.