If anyone finds themselves in eastern Ohio or western Pennyslvania, you should try and see The Country Club in Pepper Pike. Designed in 1928 next door to the earlier Flynn design at Pepper Pike Club (1924), it is one of the great Flynn courses in this country and would be on anyone's top list of courses were it in Philadelphia or anywhere else. It was recently restored under the careful stewardship of members David Gleason and Ralph Karlovec. The architect from IMG, whose name escapes me, did a wonderful job of restoring bunkers, expanding greens and returning about 10 acres of fairways (about 42 acres in total I am told). There is width galore and the strategic implications are maginified as a result. They really do get it at the club and the members' response has been overwhelmingly positive.
The elevation change is a bit pedestrian at about 50 feet but the routing is superb and make the most of the land movement and meandering streams. While the set of par 3s might not match some of the more celebrated Flynn courses, they are quite good although mostly bunched in the 170-190 yard range. the greens are superb and fully expanded with the complex outlines typical of Flynn's drawings evident and not the simplified ovals that so many greens devolve into.
I'll try to get pictures posted, but the opening hole to the finish offers a great test of golf with superb holes making great use of landforms that offer natural challenges. The green expansion to the right of the 3rd hole is really good. 3 is a 338 yard uphill par 4 with a bunker field on the right landing area. A tee shot on the left side of the fairway helps to open up the green which is shallow sloping severely back to front and left to right. It has severe bunkers behind and fronting, there is also a trecherous falloff to the right of the green. Other holes of particular interest include the exceptionally strong stretch including the uphill dogleg left 6th (452/430 par 4), the long well-bunkered straightaway 5th (505/475 par 4), and the 569/556 par 5 eighth with its abrupt drop separating the fairways and a dangerous falloff to the right of the green. Likewise, the strong finish of 15-18 is nearly as good as it gets in golf. The 15th (457/445 par 4) plays slightly down into a landing area that ends in a large diagonal ridge that is wonderfully bunkered with 4 large bunkers and up to a left green site set at an angle. 16 is a 541 yard par 5 and precedes the wonderfully natural looking 17th with a diagonal ridge that needs to be carried. A draw is rewarded with an additional 50 or so yards but results in an elevated approach to a well guarded green that slopes right to left pretty severely (Tom Paul, isn't this kind of like the hole Mark Parsinen showed us in his NY apartment where he was trying to balance the effects of long hitters with shorter hitters?). The far side of the fairway is another diagonal that needs to be considered on the tee shot so you don't hit through the fairway. The photograph of this hole surely will have a prominent place in our book. 18 is a strong finisher requiring a demanding tee shot with a long draw being well rewarded with an easier shot in to a difficult green angled beautifully with challenging slopes and a deep fronting bunker.