‘Crackers and cheese’
That day will be the culmination of a journey that began nearly a century ago. Born in 1913, Joe Jemsek spent his youth caddying at the original Cog Hill, which was owned by the Coghill brothers, John, Bert and Marty. “He used to tell Marty, ‘Someday I’m going to own this place,’” says Frank. “He thought it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen.”A good player, Joe won a long-drive contest at the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago and parlayed that fame into a successful teaching career. After saving up enough money, Jemsek bought St. Andrews in 1939 then Cog Hill in 1951.
Cog Hill had two layouts at the time, but neither was of championship caliber. Back then, the prevailing wisdom was that building a hard course for the public player was bad for business.
Joe disagreed. “My father’s favorite course was Medinah No. 3,” says Frank. “He knew that less than 10 percent of his regular customers would ever get to play a course like that. That’s when he got it in his mind to build a quality public course.”
Jemsek hired the team of Dick Wilson and Joe Lee to build Cog Hill’s third course, but their attempt fell short in the owner’s eyes. So he
demanded the architects build him a fourth course.
When Dubsdread opened in 1964, it featured more than 100 bunkers, many of them surrounding the greens. This was in an era in which most public courses in the area hardly had any hazards.
Robert von Hagge, an associate of Wilson and Lee, remembers that even back then, Joe had the Open on his mind and wanted the course to be as difficult as possible. “They would go around the course, and Joe wanted to know the yardages to various landing areas,” says von Hagge. “Dick would say, ‘Well, it’s 240 yards.’ That was 10 to 15 yards beyond what normally would be used as a standard measure on the championship tees at the time.
“Joe had a high, wheezy kind of laugh. He said, ‘That’ll get ’em.’”
Jemsek thought of everything. One day, he asked course superintendent Ken Lapp to construct a mound behind the 14th green. “He said, ‘Someday, we’re going to get a tournament here, and this will be a great place for spectators,’” says Lapp.
Since the Western Open moved to Cog Hill in 1991, Jemsek’s “Pork Chop Hill” has been the most popular viewing area for the tournament.
But Jemsek’s focus wasn’t all about hosting big events. His priority always was taking care of his regular customers, the players who changed their shoes in the parking lot, hit the ball sideways, and celebrated a score of 98 with a beer after the round.
Almost singlehandedly, Joe raised the level of customer service in public golf. He was a constant presence at the 1st tee and in the clubhouse. He wanted to be seen and golfers loved to see him. A round wasn’t complete without a chat with Joe, who made his customers feel as comfortable as possible. “There were probably 1,000 golfers who thought my dad was their best friend,” says Frank.
One of those golfers was Mike Keiser, who had a regular game at Cog Hill in the 1970s and observed the way Jemsek treated his customers. “I just loved how he ran things,” says Keiser. “He treated everyone as if they were members at a club. During one rain delay, he personally served us crackers and cheese.”
Keiser later used Jemsek’s hospitality as a model when he opened Bandon Dunes in Oregon. “Joe Jemsek proved that you could make money by offering a private-club experience to the public,” he says.
