How many of us in the treehouse will be here for US Am? I would be happy to arrange a dinner if there is interest.
I am hoping to play there this week so I will have more intel after this week, but here are some pointers.
I believe the biggest factor is going to be the difference in greens between The Home Course and Chambers Bay and people who handle that better will make it to the matchplay. The Home Course has perfect bent greens with modest movements that will most likely be running 12 or 13 for the tourney. CB will have very firm fescue greens running at 10 or so. Many players will have difficult time handling such difference from one day to the next.
Very similar winds blow at THC and CB and they will be a major defense for both courses. Some of the longest holes (#13) run straight into the wind at THC, so low balls will definitely help. Aerial game won't help you much if USGA gets the greens at CB as firm as I think they will.
If I am correct about the firmness of the green at CB, I would be practicing 20 to 50 yard putts and low running chips (not sure where you can, though). I would also be hitting balls into every sideboard on the greens to see how the ball flows into the green. There will be pin positions that are only accessible via sideboards.
I would also practice some bad lies out of sand. I am not sure how religious the crew will be about raking the vast sand waste areas and you may get some really nasty lies in footprints and such. Also, practice out of the softest sand you can find. Although USGA will probably firm up the traps, they will play softer than a typical USGA tourney course.
You will also need your driver working (at least length wise) as the courses will be stretched over 7400 yards. If you are going to miss, you want to miss AWAY from the dunes. The rough between the holes are pretty wispy and I doubt that they will get much thicker and they will be playable out of it. If you hit into the dunes, it will be a wild card on what kind of lie you will have; some will be sitting pretty, some will be covered in thick heavy rough, some will sit in a deep rut created by caterpillar tracks, etc.
Not much craziness at The Home Course. I expect the score to be very low there. You better go low on the day you play THC. The only tricky part about THC is that the course is built on top of a Superfund site and as such it has about a foot or two of gravel that line the entire course just underneath the turf. It won't matter much on fairways as the topsoil there is thick enough, but if you hit into the rough, you ball maybe laying on top of pebbles. You better know how to hit out of those.
One last thing. Just make sure you take 2 extra clubs on #7 approach!
PM me if you want hole by hole blow.