Cool connection: Architect of U.S. Open's Shinnecock Hills, William Flynn, also designed Elyria Country Club

William Flynn will get a lot of attention, and appreciation, this week during the coverage of the U.S. Open. Flynn was the architect of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which again is hosting one of the sport's showcase events. The historic course in Southampton, New York, is annually ranked among the top five in the world. The global acknowledgement of Flynn will bring a sense of pride to the members of Elyria Country Club. Flynn designed their course in 1925, five years before Shinnecock. "We've got a lot of members that they're driving past two golf courses or three golf courses to come out here and play, and I think they appreciate the design," Elyria Country Club head golf professional Tony Hoover said. "I think the older guys love when it's a Flynn course that's one of the Opens because they're able to impart that knowledge like, 'It's kind of a big deal, William Flynn's nobody to sleep on.' "We appreciate that and we do it a little different way. We talk about it, but we don't talk about it a crazy amount because I think that people understand it already." The 61st annual Elyria Country Club Member-Guest Invitational coincides with the U.S. Open. When the participants are done with their rounds in Lorain County this weekend, they will gather around the TVs to take in another Flynn masterpiece demanding the most of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and the rest of the best players in the world. And compare notes. "It's always cool to be running a big event while there's a big event going on at a course that was sharing a designer," Hoover said. Flynn was based in Philadelphia and is credited with designing The Country Club in Massachusetts, Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado and Inverness Club in Toledo, which have all hosted the national championship. He also designed The Country Club and Pepper Pike Club, which are neighbors on the East Side of Cleveland. Chris Hunt is the president of Elyria Country Club and in his 17th season as a member. He's a huge fan of golf course architecture and the club's unofficial historian. He estimated he had played 10-12 Flynn designs, including Shinnecock. "Certainly he is a very famous architect and his name in the serious golfer circles would carry a lot of pedigree," said Hunt, who's attending the U.S. Open as a spectator. "But in reality, it's ultimately his work and how good the golf course is that he designed that really gives me the pride of being there. I've traveled quite a bit and seen a ton of courses around the world and I actively choose to drive past several viable private golf courses to get to Elyria Country Club because of the land, because of the design and because of what he laid out. "We're lucky to have it. There's only about 45 Flynn courses that were ever built. So to have one in my backyard and three in Cleveland is fairly unique." THE DESIGN So many things go into course architecture that even avid golfers can miss subtleties. Among defining characteristics for Flynn were the routing of the holes, using the land as he found it, strategic demands and complex green designs. Hoover and Hunt pointed to the layout as one of the qualities that make Elyria special. "Engaging the Black River, which is just a beautiful natural resource to have as our boundary," Hunt said. "And he actually routed 13, 14, 15, 16 to be right along it and engaging with it in the meat of your back nine, which is great for match play and seeing how tournaments will wrap up. "The current routing is Flynn's original routing identically. The club didn't move greens over the course of the last hundred years after he left. They didn't reroute holes. Flynn actually designed the golf course to be playable from its current clubhouse location and the original clubhouse location, which was over by where our maintenance facility is now. So there was anticipation that some tragedy might befall the old clubhouse and the new location would become viable, and that happened in the late 40s." A fire struck the clubhouse, and the club was ready to make the switch. The old No. 1 became No. 3, with the old Nos. 8 and 9 turned into Nos. 1 and 2. The former back nine started with No. 13, so Nos. 10-12 were the finishing holes "It's actually pretty darn similar, the flow of the holes," Hunt said. "We're very lucky that what you see today would be recognizable by William Flynn if he were to stop over. It's definitely not the case with lots of golf courses." According to the William Flynn Society website, he "chose to hide much of his work by making his architectural constructs appear natural" and referred to himself as the "Nature Faker." "He definitely knew his way around routing," Hoover said. "I play a lot of great courses, especially in this area. But one thing I really loved about what Flynn did is he was known for taking a property and making a golf course flow with it. "Flynn didn't like boring back-and-forth golf. He wanted it to be a natural feel. And he wanted you to think about the shots you hit." No. 14 is a prime example of a Flynn trait that's also on display at Shinnecock, where the challenge is said to get greater the closer a golfer gets to the hole. If the pin is back right on the tiered green of the short par 4 at Elyria, a golfer must consider what club to hit off the tee, and the job only gets harder from there. "That's obviously our most dramatic green and on a short hole like that, that's what you want," Hunt said. Hoover saw undeniable similarities when he was short of a hole at The Country Club. "I'm like, 'man, this is just like pitching onto the green on No. 10 at Elyria,'" he said. "You kind of get those subtle ideas. And he just wanted you to think a little bit. It's not that caveman golf of hit it far and wedge it onto the green and get lucky. You've got to hit some smart shots or you're going to get punished for that." THE HISTORY Elyria Country Club was built because Worthington Ball Co. manufactured golf balls in the city and wanted to promote the business. The club was founded in 1905. The course began as seven holes and expanded to nine. Flynn was later hired to build an 18-hole layout that was largely independent of the previous course. Hunt said the presumption is Flynn was in Cleveland in 1924 to build Pepper Pike Club and Elyria Country Club reached out to him. Flynn was partners in the construction company with engineer Howard Toomey and was hands-on in building the course. "I think it took a little less than a year," Hunt said. "The first balls were hit in the summer of '26, July 4 of '26." The season-long individual match play tournament is called the Flynn Cup and a burger is named after him, but the club wants to do more to honor him. "Obviously we've got some more work to do with how Flynn is presented visually around the club because it's been a hundred years and not everybody thinks about golf course architecture all the time," Hunt said. "Trying to get it back. We're definitely excited to accentuate Flynn's role." Especially this week. Contact Scott Petrak at (440) 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @scottpetrak on X.