New England golf lost a cherished friend when Bill Flynn passed away earlier this month at the age of 74. Flynn, who lived for golf and his family, was the driving force behind the successes of so many area golf courses and players who grew up under his tutelage.
“My dad was a huge promoter of junior golf,” said Bob Flynn, Bill’s son and director of golf at the 27-hole Far Corner Golf Course in West Boxford, Mass., one of three tracks that the elder Flynn owned.
Recognizing the importance of junior golf to the future of the game, Flynn offered free instruction and play for youngsters at all of his 
courses — Far Corner, Windham (N.H.) CC, and Lakeview Golf Course in Wenham, Mass. — a tradition that his children have continued.
“I run into people wherever I am who tell me, ‘your father taught me,’ or ‘I caddied for your father when he was the caddie master at Salem Country Club,’” Bob Flynn said. “He taught thousands of players on the North Shore.”
Harry McCracken, a former president of the Massachusetts Golf Association, echoed Flynn’s sentiments.
“[Bill Flynn] did a tremendous amount of goodwill for the game of golf in New England and especially for the younger generation,” McCracken told us in an e-mail. “He was instrumental in getting people to realize that the game of golf is not just for adults, but rather it is also a game for young kids.”
Golf was a labor of love for Flynn, who was smitten at first swing. The icon of golf on Massachusetts’ North Shore began his life-long affair with the game as a 10-year-old caddie at United Shoe Country Club (now Beverly Golf and Tennis Club). He became assistant golf pro and caddie master at Salem when he was 18 and took over the position of head golf professional at Thompson CC in North Reading shorting after that course opened in 1963.
Flynn’s playing career took flightwhen he won his first major golf tourney, the Vermont Open, in 1959. In 1963, he became the first and only southpaw to win the Massachusetts Open. He also notched a five-stroke victory in the 1968 New England PGA Championship.
After several years in high-level positions at NEPGA, Flynn succeeded Paul Harney as the organization’s president in 1973 and held the position until 1976. NEPGA inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1998.
Flynn’s influence is evident throughout Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. In addition to owning the three courses his children still operate, Flynn was instrumental in rejuvenating Boston’s two city-owned courses, William J. Devine Golf Course in Dorchester and Hyde Park’s George Wright GC. At one time, he also operated Mount Hood Golf Course in Melrose and Ipswich CC.
Slowed by health issues in his later years, Flynn continued to run his management company and encourage kids to play the game he loved by offering free junior clinics, gear, and play.
As an active advocate of competitive golf, Flynn founded the North Shore Amateur golf tourney, an event for the region’s top amateur golfers that Far Corner has hosted every year since its inception in 1978. Flynn will dedicate this year’s tourney, which will run on August 16-August 17, to his late father.
For all his accomplishments on and off the course, those whom Bill Flynn touched will remember a man of kindness and integrity.
“His legacy,” said Bob, “is that he always treated people the way they wanted to be treated.”
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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