The
secret behind the relationship between Frank Jemsek and his father,
Joe, starts with garbage. On any given morning at Cog Hill Golf and Country
Club in Lemont, Illinois, you are likely to see a tall, angular man in a
straw hat, stooping to pick up the trash in the parking lot. He meticulously
gathers a napkin here, a cup there.It is incongruous to see the owner of one of the best public golf facilities in the country at such a menial job. But for the 68-year-old Jemsek, the exercise has deep, profound roots.
Frank practically grew up at West Chicago’s St. Andrews Golf and Country Club, owned by his father. One day, a teenage Frank noticed garbage around the clubhouse and started picking it up. Seeing this, his father came dashing out of the clubhouse.
“He said, ‘Why did you do that?’” Frank recalls. “I told him I just thought I should pick up the papers. It was probably the happiest I ever saw him over something I did.”
More than five decades later, Frank still picks up debris in the way that so pleased his father. But he would like to do more for Joe, who died in 2002 at the age of 89. Frank is trying to fulfill his father’s lifelong dream of hosting the U.S. Open at the family’s crown jewel, Cog Hill’s No. 4 course, also known as “Dubsdread.”
“My father’s dream is the family’s dream too,” says Frank, who oversees the Jemseks’ three facilities in the Chicago area: Cog Hill,
St. Andrews and Pine Meadow Golf Club in Mundelein. He has
taken a step closer to that dream with the reopening this spring of
Dubsdread following a renovation by Rees Jones.
Jones installed new greens, repositioned bunkers and pushed back some tees to keep up with today’s long hitters, among other changes. The project cost about $5 million, a large sum for a family known to be frugal with cash.
Known as the “Open Doctor,” Jones has overseen the renovation of many U.S. Open courses, including Bethpage Black and Torrey Pines South. While Jones’ hand doesn’t necessarily guarantee that a course will host the Open, the architect has done enough renovations to have a feel for what the U.S. Golf Association is looking for in a national championship site.
“I would have been honest with Frank and turned it down [if Cog Hill wasn’t worthy of the U.S. Open],” says Jones. “It had to have the bones to do it, and it does. I’ve indicated to [the USGA] what I think. I believe an Open will go there one day.”
