From Caddie to King

If the topic is golf on the North Shore, the discussion must begin with Bill Flynn

By Gary Larrabee

Bill Flynn, the pride of Danvers, has been a man of few words, but many extraordinary achievements, during his more than a half century of dedication to the game of golf here on the North Shore and beyond.

He has been a Champion player, a junior golf benefactor, a golf course owner and developer as well as a PGA national and regional organization leader. No wonder he was ranked No. 1 among the “North Shore’s Golden Hundred” in the 2001 volume, The Green & Gold Coast: The History of Golf on Boston’s North Shore, 1893-2001 (Commonwealth Editions).

Clearly no man or woman in the region has savored such a high level of success in the game, nor done as much to promote the game of golf, than William Joseph Flynn.

But what will be his most enduring legacy - his Lakeview, Far Corner and Windham golf courses notwithstanding - is his three children who have opted to follow in their father’s footsteps as golf professionals.

Michael, 43, is head professional at Lakeview, the nine-hole executive layout in Wenham where many a local kid continues to play his first round of golf with dad or grampy.

Joanne, 36, is in New Hampshire running the operation at Windham Country Club, which her dad built, then opened in 1995.

And finally, 40-year-old Bob turned pro when he was 18 and has been Director of Golf at Far Corner, the 27-hole championship course in West Boxford with a “Vermont feel” to it, since 1994.

“They have all done great and I am immensely proud of them,” said the 66-year-old Flynn of his golf-focused brood while sipping from a cup of coffee at his Bill Flynn Golf Course Management offices, situated behind the 15th green at Thomson Country Club in North Reading.

“But I am equally proud of our other daughter, Jana, who sometimes gets overlooked because she is not in the golf business like the rest of us.”

Jana Flynn is a successful horse trainer who runs her own stable in Danvers called Lane’s End, where she has more than 30 horses under her care.

“My wife, Janice, and I are as happy that Jana is enjoying what she is doing, as we are with our second generation golf professionals,” Bill noted. “We always told them they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they worked hard and were conscientious. We never coerced them into the golf business just because they had the opportunity. They had to really want to get involved. They all started at Lakeview, they learned the game and the business, developed strong work ethics and, well, it’s been a rewarding career for all of them and it’s helped us stay close as a family.”

Michael Flynn played golf at St. John’s Prep, but unlike Joanne and Bob, pursued a non-golf career for 15 years in commercial real estate before jumping into the family business.

“Dad asked me to do some consulting for him on the Quashnet Valley project (in Mashpee),” Michael said. “We helped them increase their rounds and revenue and streamline their maintenance operation. That renewed my interest in golf. I later found the Windham property while still working commercial real estate – it went through bankruptcy proceedings. That was a nice break for us.”

And it lured Michael back into the game full-time as the man at Lakeview, as soon as Windham opened and Joanne took charge up there. Joanne and Michael are both in their 10th years at their home courses.

“I’m not the self-made man my father has been, but he’s in a league by himself anyway,” Michael Flynn said. “I’m just happy to be where I am. I love the game and the chance to be part of my father’s success.”

That goes double for Joanne.

“I remember loving going to Thomson with Dad when I was 7 and 8,” Joanne recalled. “He was business-like, but he really enjoyed what he did with the members. Before long he was general manager and started his management business.”

Joanne was 13 when she started working on the Lakeview register. After graduating from Bishop Fenwick, she became an assistant pro at the age of 19, and it has been all golf for her ever since.

“My father’s been a lot of good things to me: a role model, a hard worker, a gracious player, honest, fair, generous,” she said. “He’s made quite an impression on me.”

And she has tried to follow appropriately. She has run free junior clinics for years. She works with an inner city golf program for youngsters in Lowell, and she runs a tournament benefiting victims of domestic abuse every summer.

“It’s all worthwhile when you can give back to the game some of which you’ve taken from it,” she said.

Bobby Flynn gained acclaim long before he became a golf professional when he was pictured being held by dad while the new Massachusetts Open champion was getting kissed by his mom in 1963 at Kernwood Country Club in Salem. Older brother Michael is holding the trophy and his grandmother, Honora Flynn, is looking on as the proud mother of the winner.

? I didn’t know too much about what was going on that day,? Bob Flynn said. ?But as soon as I was aware, I loved everything about golf and the golf business.

“I grew up on my father’s courses. I was washing clubs and picking up range balls when I was eight. I played at the Prep like Michael, but I didn’t wait around. I knew what I wanted, so I turned pro at 18 and went right to work at Lakeview and Far Corner.”

Three years later he was named head pro at Mt. Hood in Melrose, a course his dad was managing, and he remained in that post for 10 years until he became golf director in 1994 at Far Corner, where John O’Connor continues as head professional.

“I like doing things the way my father did them,” Bob said. “Why shouldn’t I? He taught me everything I know; how to be a good businessman, how to give back to the game through the juniors and the high schools. Worked pretty good for him.”

Indeed. It all comes back to the saga of a scraggly 10-year-old kid with a funny looking arm, and his first bike rides in 1947, with brother Tom, from their Danversport home to United Shoe Country Club in Beverly, which is now home to Beverly Golf & Tennis.

“I just wanted to find a way to make a dollar, so Tom and I thought we’d try caddying at The Shoe,” Bill Flynn remembered.

Seventeen years later, the caddie who “just wanted to make a dollar” was at Kernwood CC competing in the event that will always be mentioned when Bill Flynn’s golf career is discussed. To the group of spectators standing behind the 16th green on that fateful Tuesday afternoon, it seems like yesterday.

There was Flynn, the most unorthodox of all golfers as a left-handed player with a partially-paralyzed right arm since birth, 155 yards back down the fairway, holding a 6-iron for his second shot into the elevated green.

The 27-year-old, first-year head professional at the new Thomson Club in North Reading knew he was in contention in this Massachusetts Open championship’s final round.

“It’s funny, because I wasn’t playing good golf coming in. My putting was off especially, but I managed to stay close the first two rounds, then the last round turned out to be my best [round of] golf ever,” recalled Flynn.

In arguably the greatest finish in Mass Open history, Flynn went eagle-birdie-par-eagle-par-par in that fateful final 18, including a holed 6-iron for a two on the par 4, 415-yard 16th. He parred the last two holes and beat Weston’s Jim Browning by two strokes with a 71-74-66-211, 1-over-par.

His eagle deuce on 16 continues to rank as the most dramatic shot made in a Mass Open in the closing holes.

“I had a flat lie in the left corner of the fairway,” Flynn said, like it occurred yesterday. “The shot was downwind and the pin was back right. I hit a slight fade (for him that meant from right to left) and the next thing I knew the crowd around the green, maybe 200 people, made a lot of noise. It seems 2,000 people have told me over the years that they saw that shot. I was happy, but it was no time to jump for joy. I had two tricky holes left.”

That is the victory by which Flynn will always be remembered as a top-rank player, even though it was neither his first nor last win. He captured the 1959 Vermont Open as a Salem CC assistant pro-caddie master with 64-67-131, 7-under-par, worth $260. Kernwood earned him $550.

In 1968, devoid of a major win for five years, Flynn stunned the field at the New England PGA Championship at Pine Brook in Weston, shooting 67-72 for 139, 1-under, and a five-stroke success over Jay Dolan.

“It was quite a thrill to beat such a strong field,” said Flynn. “I still had a good game, but I simply hadn’t put it together for a complete tournament in a long time.”

Two years later Flynn began a lengthy involvement with PGA organizational issues. He served as secretary-treasurer to NEPGA president Paul Harney from 1970-72, then assumed the presidency for the following four years. He later served two years as secretary treasurer of the NEPGA and one term as a national PGA vice-president.

After serving as Thomson pro for 23 years and for nearly as long as its general manager, Flynn hung his own shingle with his management/development company. He is credited with bringing back to life the Franklin Park and George Wright municipal courses in Boston and Mt. Hood.

He also has brought new stature and higher quality playing conditions as owner of Far Corner and Lakeview and given the region one of the best new public courses in the region at Windham CC.

“I’ve received a great deal of satisfaction working with all these courses,” said Flynn. “This was the logical direction for my career to go when I realized I did not want to be a club pro until I retired. And seeing my children have a direct hand in my business has been a big bonus.”

Golfers played 35,000 rounds at Far Corner, 35,000 at Windham and 30,000 at Lakeview in 2002.

?I’ve never done anything but work in golf, and that’s the way I’ve wanted it, so I’m very fortunate,? added Flynn, a life-long Danvers resident.

As have been the North Shore and Greater Boston golf family.

“Bill Flynn has been a major contributor to the game on several levels,” observed Ipswich native Dick Haskell, the executive director emeritus of the Massachusetts Golf Association. “The New England PGA, the MGA; we’ve never had a greater friend of the game.”

Teacher, player, administrator, manager, course owner, employer, role model. Bill Flynn has done it all during his career in golf; a career that routinely involves seven-day work weeks. He would want it no other way.

And thanks to that infinite dedication to the game, North Shore golf has been a better place.