FRANK JEMSEK IS THE OWNER OF THE COG HILL GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

THE GOG BLOG TRAVELED TO LEMONT AND COG HILL,and caught up
with owner Frank Jemsek, where he addressed his health, an increased
role at Cog Hill for his daughter Katherine.  His attempts to keep the
PGA Tour, BMW, and The Western Golf Association happy come this
September, with a Dubsdread course 4 layout in better condition than
in 2010, and why he thinks the next U.S. Open in Chicago should be at
Cog Hill.

FRANK , I SEE CONSTRUCTION HERE, IS THIS THE NEXT RENOVATION
PHASE AT COG HILL ?

FRANK JEMSEK..."The front entrance wore out after 30 years, so our
main entrance here, the cart park for courses 1 & 3 and the 1-3 parking
lot is being redone (repaved). Hopefully it will last another 30 years."

TELL US WHAT STAGE IS YOUR COG HILL RENOVATION PLAN AT,
AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THE 2-4 BUILDING, COURSE 4
AND THE MAIN CLUBHOUSE ?

FRANK JEMSEK..."Number 4 was a purposeful renovation, trying to
bring the standards up to modern players and especially the PGA Tour
players. Our main clubhouse had to be redone because we had an
80 year old roof going bad, and when they redid the roof it wrecked the
ceiling. So we did both. The fellow Jewel Berger who did the wood work,
worked all over the world, but did things for private properties. He did
Oprah's house, Howard Sterns house, Hugh Hefners estates, so we
might be the only public place in Chicago he worked at."

YOU HAVE HAD SOME KNEE SURGERIES, ARE YOU FINALLY READY
TO HIT THE COURSE AND GO PLAY ?

FRANK JEMSEK..."The knee surgeries are over and the staff infection
is over too. I still have a little ways to go, but I am getting stronger and
that's great."

TALK ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTER KATHERINE, YOU HAVE GIVEN HER
A BIGGER ROLE HERE.

FRANK JEMSEK..."She is now the President of Cog Hill Golf. With all the
hours of I-V's I had all winter and feeling weak, my big part of the day was
just coming here for lunch. So I wasn't capable of running the business.
This is a change I should have made earlier, she is tackling problems
I should have tackled earlier. That's the advantage of youth, she was a
great student in school and we are taking advantage of that too. She loves
the golf business and I hope she does better that I ever did."

YOU HAVE NEW SUPERINTENDENT FOR COURSE 4, TELL US ABOUT
SCOTT PAVELKO  WHO JOINS YOU FROM MUIRFIELD VILLAGE.

FRANK JEMSEK..."We are quite excited to have him here. Last spring Ken
Lapp came to me and said, next year I'm going to be 75 maybe it's time
to find someone to take my place. We decided not to announce this publicly
so we didn't have to wade through over 500 applications. We spoke with
a couple of superintendents here in the Chicago area, who turned us down.
So we went to the PGA Tour, and then Mike Davis at the USGA. Mike gave
us the names of some superintendents who had a great record of having
assistants move on to bigger jobs. The super at Merion has had 38 former
assistants move on and up. But then the PGA Tour came back to us and
said we have a young man who we didn't know would be interested, but
he is. So we brought Scott in to meet with Ken, and my daughter who did
most of the legwork on this. katherine thought Scott wanted the job the most."

WHAT ARE LOOKING FOR FROM SCOTT ON COURSE 4 THIS YEAR ?

FRANK JEMSEK..." Scott has spent the last seven years working on a
course similar to course 4. The trapping is close to the greens, so the
mowers turn in tight area's. One of Scott's former co-workers came up
with a plastic mat to turn the mowers on, so we have ordered some. His
experience is on A1-A4 greens like ours, and a underground system
that is like our sub-air system. Scott has also worked across the street,
at the CDGA golf house turf grass research facility since arriving here.
Scott and their staff are exchanging a lot of information and ideas, so it's
nice to have all these turf-grass experts right on property."

FRANK TALK ABOUT THE PRACTICE FACILITY, MANY PEOPLE DON'T
KNOW HOW GOOD IT IS, AND HOW GREAT THE TEACHERS ARE.

FRANK JEMSEK..."Years back we had a field where people shagged
their owns balls and that got dangerous. We also decided we needed
a first class practice facility. My dad (Joe) was a firm believer in practicing
before you play. Golf Digest then started some golf schools in the area
that they held at a private club, they weren't letting any of the students in
the clubhouse even to use the facilities (bathrooms). So they called
my dad and said we need a place for these schools."

SO THAT'S ALL IT TOOK ?

FRANK JEMSEK..."Bob Toski, Jim Fleck, Davis Love Jr., and John Elliot were
here. So why they were here, we said we want to build a great range what
should we do. One thing that came of this was that we were going to tear
down the barn for more range space. But Love Jr. said, leave it, it makes
a great target. Plus someday that place will be full of teachers using all this
new modern stuff in golf instruction, like video and computers. So we liked
his idea and he was right, it still makes a great target and our pros work
from there. Our teachers are all highly rated. Doctor Jim Suttie, my son-in-law
Kevin Weeks, and Dede Owens (when she worked at Cog Hill before passing
away). "

FRANK PEOPLE SEE YOU AT COG HILL, MANY DON'T KNOW YOU HAVE
A GOLF FACILITY (PINE MEADOW) IN THE NORTHERN BURBS.

FRANK JEMSEK..."About 50 years ago Monsignor McGillet asked my dad
to look at the seminary golf course in Mundelein that someone gave them.
When my dad brought in architect Joe Lee for a look, he said the course
and trapping designs look like those of William S. Flynn a famous old
time designer. Then we found out the seminary course was built at the
same time Flynn was in town, to build a course in Lake Forest called
Millrose Farms. At one time Millrose Rose Farms was one of the top
three courses in the country. Years ago the seminary hired a former
city of chicago worker named Willie O'Caroll, who found out that
Cardinal Mundelein's favorite tree was evergreens. So he spent 30
years planting evergreens around the course, with a few oaks behind
the greens. When we opened the course I wanted to name it
Sunningdale after a course in England, but I was talked out of it.
Since the course was surrounded by pine trees, hence the name."

YOU ARE FOUR MONTHS FROM THE BMW CHAMPIONSHIP COMING
BACK, ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO IT ?

FRANK JEMSEK..."Yes quite a bit. It's always great to see the famous
golfers here. There is always a spike in play after a tournament is in
town, so we like the fact the tournament is here and feel it helps us.
Last year we had lots of troubles, turf wise and stuff like that. Paul
Vermillion (chief agronomist PGA Tour) came in and helped us a lot
last year. But we still weren't where we would like to be or where the
PGA Tour would have liked us to be. Paul identified a patch disease
we had, and we have already sprayed for it this year. I think if we were
in the same condition this year, that we were in last. Our chances of
signing another contract with the WGA would be slim or none. We still
hope when PGA Tour tournaments are in Chicago they will be here.
But we understand that with the rising costs of college tuitions, that
when the WGA goes to another market that doesn't always have golf
they make more money. I think it was a million and half dollars more
when they were in St. Louis a few years ago."(Vermillion has already
made one visit to Cog Hill this year and will return)

THE 2013 BMW CHAMPIONSHIP LOCATION IS STILL UP IN THE AIR
WOULD YOU LIKE IT BACK ?

FRANK JEMSEK.."Yes we would love to have it. It's fun to have it here.
When things are going well, (laughs) I try to stand out and greet the
people, and convince a few people to come here and play Cog Hill.
We still want to do somethings to make us more gallery friendly, in
fact when Rees (Jones) was here to redo course 4, my son Joey
(Jemsek Jr.) had an idea to lower the tee's on the 12th hole making
more mounds for spectators. In addition to taking away the view of
the plants that make anti-freeze at the bottom of the hill. We went to
study TPC Sawgrass and it's the best spectator course in the world,
even though Augusta National is pretty good too."

LAST YEAR YOU TOOK A RUN AT THE 2017 US OPEN, THAT WENT
TO ERIN HILLS IN WISCONSIN..WHEN WILL YOU DO THAT AGAIN.

FRANK JEMSEK.."We would like to have a USGA event here. We wanted
the Western Open for years and we finally got it. We also had to try for
a lot of years to get the catholic archdiocese to lease us Pine Meadow too,
but my dad never gave up. So we won't give up trying to get the U.S. Open,
it gives us something to work for. We have learned that the USGA doesn't
really like to take the U.S. Open to courses that the PGA Tour uses every
year because the players get familiar with it. But eventually the logic of being
in the countries third biggest market will happen, and the local tournament
can go out of town that year and make more money somewhere else."

DO YOU HAVE A TARGET YEAR TO TRY AGAIN FOR THE OPEN ?

FRANK JEMSEK.."It would be like 2022, since (the USGA) is not going
to comeback to the midwest as often as we would like. My daughter
Katherine has been putting out feelers to the USGA, for upcoming years
when we don't have the BMW Championship in town like 2014 to have
one of their tournaments here. We have the facility. Olympia Fields beat
us out once before, we had the U.S. Amateur here and they had the U.S.
Open. But I think we have some strong advantages over Olympia Fields
(in hosting a U.S. Open) because we can sell 20,000 more tickets a day
than Olympia Fields. The U.S. Open is is better when more people can 
enjoy it and see it live. It's a tournament that will sell out anyway, why not
sell it  to more people and make more money."

THE GOG BLOG THANKS FRANK JEMSEK FOR ANSWERING ALL 12
QUESIONS...for more info on Cog Hill 1-(866)-COG HILL. Or visit on
the web www.coghillgolf.com.