DID TIGER WOODS COST COG HILL THE US OPEN..Maybe he has. That's one thought
Cog Hill owner Frank Jemsek has, hopefully the United States Golf Association (USGA) 
doesn't have it too.

Click here to listen to Rory's interview with Frank Jemsek.
  

Download | Duration: 00:10:21

Jemsek in his first interview since the BMW Championship and the Fed Ex Cup playoffs
pulled out of Cog Hill, says he hasn't lost sight of a possible US Open, but admits Tiger
Woods may not have done his "Dubsdread Course" any favors.

Golfers on Golf found Jemsek near the christmas tree in the front lobby of the Cog Hill
clubhouse, on the night before surgery to replace his ailing knee.

"It (knee) really kept me off the course this year," Jemsek said. "I don't want to go through
another summer like this one, I really enjoy the game too much."

Another thing Jemsek would more than enjoy, would be the USGA droping something,
anything, under his christmas tree. Something that says they are impressed with the new
renovations, that Jemsek paid a whole big pile of money to Rees Jones to install on his
number four course.

Of course the expenditures didn't stop on course four. The Jemseks looking long term and
for the benefit of their regular customers, spent a lot of money renovating the main clubhouse.
Even more on the structure across the parking lot called the 2-4 building.

With renovations complete and Chicago being passed over for the 2016 olympic games,
and Cog Hill no longer needed as a possible olympic golf venue, is Jemseks focus now back 
on the US Open. Not what could have been. Jemsek recently learned that when the United States
Olympic Committee (USOC), asked the USGA to recommend a golf venue if Chicago got the bid.
The USGA told the USOC, to pick Cog Hill.

"Our focus has always been an US Open," Jemsek said. "We just didn't want to pass up the
chance of hosting the olympics, but the US Open is still the best tournament in golf and we'd love
to have it. Having a US Open open down the road, would make the course better and help us
draw better players here."

Jemsek knows that since Cog Hill is part of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs, they will get a good field.
However he realizes that if the the Fed-Ex Cup went away, the PGA Tours best players would
still show up for a Western Open, if Cog Hill was the future site of a US Open.

With final stats in hand, Jemsek was asked how course four did in it's test drive during BMW week.

"I thought the PGA Tour used soft pin positions," Jemsek said. "The tour could have made them
harder than they did. Then you have Tigers 62 (nine under par third round score), I think that hurt
our chances of hosting a US Open."

Looking at the stats the PGA Tour provides, Jemsek said," It appears Rees put the hazzards in
the right places. In spite of the fact that the numbers show, the average drive on the 18th hole
all four days was 305 yards."

Statistics on some other key holes like the seventh with the newly added pond, saw most players
lay up or try to go around it. Jemsek said the eighth hole played easier, without the big willow trees
guarding the right side of the fairway. In spite of not playing the same tees day after day, the average
distance for the week was about 7,400 yards.

Jemsek says he wasn't bothered one bit, by the tour not growing almost any rough for the BMW
Championship. "Our regular customers would have had a hard time leading up to tournament
week. But I am a little unpleased with how well the players shot, I thought we would hold up a
little better than we did."

Having Tiger Woods as your course record holder is great, Jemsek concedes that. Then on the
other hand admits, "a 62 is a low score and makes the course look easy. It hurt our chances and
shows how good Tiger Woods is."

What makes Jemsek a little nervous is that, he has not heard one word from anybody at the USGA
since the BMW Championship ended.

The USGA will hold it's convention starting on February 6th, 2010 at the famed Pinehurst Resort in
North Carolina. Jemsek says he will attend the convention, while making himself visable and available
to anyone from the USGA that wants to speak with him.

If it takes bringing Jones back to tweak things, in order to land an open. Jemsek says he'll, "be happy
to do it." 

Jemsek isn't sure if any future open sites will get announced at Pinehurst. But if the USGA does make
a decision, Jemsek thinks it will get announced right away. "It's hard to keep things secret these days,
especially in the golf business." The guy who might have ruined Cog Hills chances of landing a US
Open should agree.

The first matter of business for Jemsek however was getting his knee fixed, that surgery is over and
hopefully he'll be back playing on his own courses soon.  Maybe at some point after that, the USGA
will be back playing at Cog Hill too. It's been 12 years since they have come by, and Jemsek has the
door wide open for them. The USGA should take advanatge of it.

WHAT CAN COG HILL DO TO LAND A US OPEN...THE EXPERTS CHIME IN, COMING SOON TO THE
GOG BLOG. YOUR THOUGHTS ARE WELCOME TOO, EMAIL US.