Elyria Country Club exists primarily because of the Worthington Ball Company of Elyria then known as Worthington Mfg. Co. In 1903 acquired the entire line of golf equipment from Hunt Mfg. Co. of Massachusetts. In that line, were the “Haskell” patents on the first three-piece wound rubber golf ball, a ball that was developed by Clevelander Coburn Haskell in collaboration with an engineer from B.F. Goodrich in Akron in 1898. The ball they produced was dubbed “Bounding Billie” and it completely changed the game from the way it was previously played using the solid “gutta-percha” ball.
Walter Travis won two U.S. Amateurs and Sandy Herd won the British Open with the new ball. In short, Worthington executives, Dr. Bert Sanders and Sol B.Leonard wished to promote their business by establishing golf in Elyria. Fifty interested members attended a meeting in 1904, an astonishing number considering only two Elyrians, William N.Gates and F. Stacey Miller had ever played the game.
The birthday of Elyria Country Club was April 18, 1905 and its first elected Board President was Arthur L. Garford, a very successful wealthy Elyria Industrialist and inventor who held many patents including the first bicycle saddle. He was also a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt for whom he helped get elected to a second term.
The golf course for many years until 1925 was a 9-hole layout until purchases of land enhanced by the flowing “Black River” made it possible to expand. The famous renowned golf course architect, William S. Flynn of Ardmore, Pa. was contracted to design and develop 18 new holes on 161 acres. The new course opened on July 4, 1926. The first foursome used gold-plated golf balls, courtesy of the Worthington Ball Co. of Elyria who were later to become the largest producers of golf balls in the World.
Conversations about the greatest golf course architects of all time, tend to focus tends to fall on names like Alister Mackenzie, Donald Ross and C.B. Macdonald. Often overlooked is William Flynn, a fitting legacy for a man who had an uncanny ability to blend his manufactured features with the natural landscape.
Elyria Country Club (ECC) is the creative vision of William S. Flynn, one of America’s premier golf course architects. A founding partner of the renowned Philadelphia School of Design, Flynn produced plans for some sixty courses nationwide; two others in the Cleveland area (The Country Club and Pepper Pike CC) along with well-known national venues Shinnecock Hills CC on Long Island which is home of the 2018 United States Open, the Homestead’s Cascades Course in Virginia, and Cherry Hills CC in Colorado.
Elyria Country Club offers a fully stocked Golf Shop containing the latest trends in golf apparel and equipment. From May through October, Tony Hoover and his staff conduct a full complement of events for both men and women. Some highlights of the ECC golfing season include: Men’s and Women’s Opening Day Events, Spring Guest Day, Men’s Invitational, Flynn Cup, Club Championships, ECC Caddie Pro-Am, Couples Invitational, Men’s and Women’s Closing Day Events, ECC’s Renowned Golf Clambakes, and much more.
Have kids interested in golf? Be sure to sign up for our Junior Golf. It is a great way to introduce and teach children the game of golf.
Please feel free to contact the Golf Shop at (440) 323-8225) or Tony Hoover: [email protected]