This has been discussed here before by Wayne Morrison and TEPaul as their Flynn book is about to be published. Here is an excerpt from Joe Logan's column in today's Philadelphia Inquirer(also note the link to Logan's previous column on Flynn) highlighting their position on the Flynn attribution and Philmont's position in their forthcoming club history celebrating their centennial:
Golf | Elite club's pedigree is in question
Is Huntingdon Valley's Philmont in like Flynn? Two experts say no.
By Joe Logan
Inquirer Columnist
Except for thoroughbred horse racing, European royalty, and the Ivy League, nowhere does pedigree matter more than in the world of golf courses.
For a club to be able to brag that its golf course was designed by Donald Ross or A.W. Tillinghast or, in a more modern vein, Pete Dye or Tom Fazio, confers snob appeal.
It is against this backdrop that Philmont Country Club in Huntingdon Valley is celebrating its centennial, with reasons to be proud of its history and its golf courses. Not only were the club's founding fathers a Who's Who of Jewish aristocracy in 1906 - Ellis Gimbel, Samuel Lit, Joseph Snellenberg, Jules Mastbaum - Philmont's North Course has always been thought to be a "Flynn."
"Flynn" is William S. Flynn, the Massachusetts transplant who came to Philadelphia in 1912 to be the greenskeeper at Merion Golf Club and never left.
In time, Flynn began to design golf courses, and though he never rivaled Ross in national reputation, he left his mark. In addition to two U.S. Open courses (Shinnecock Hills and Cherry Hills), Flynn designed a dozen of this area's finest courses. Among them are Philadelphia Country Club, Huntingdon Valley Country Club, Manufacturers' Golf and Country Club, Rolling Green Country Club, Green Valley Country Club, and Lancaster Country Club.
Today, one of Flynn's biggest champions is Andy Karff, golf chairman and unofficial club historian at Philmont, and a member of the executive committee of the Golf Association of Philadelphia. Ten years ago, weary of the praise for Ross as Flynn went unappreciated, Karff organized the Flynn Cup, an annual competition among area clubs with Flynn courses. This fall, in fact, the Flynn Cup returns to Philmont.
One problem: Philmont, it turns out, might not be a Flynn.
So say Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul, who have spent four years researching a biography of Flynn. Because they are sufficiently unconvinced of Flynn's connection to Philmont, they do not intend to include it among their list of 50 or so Flynns.
"There is absolutely no archival material that links Flynn to Philmont," Morrison said last week. "Somehow, it got into the oral tradition of the club."
For more see:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/14517919.htm