Latest news with #BallyHaly
CBC
20-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Retired journalist-turned-hero recounts golf course rescue
Retired journalist Glenn Payette doesn't typically find himself in the middle of a story but that all changed when he heard an unsettling noise on the site of a former St. John's golf course last Thursday. He and his wife Pam Frampton first thought the sound was coming from a goose as they strolled along Logy Bay Road. "Suddenly I went, 'No, no, hang on here,'" Payette told CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show. "'That sounds like somebody might be calling their dog.'" Payette made a beeline for the voice when he realized it was someone in distress. A man was in an irrigation pond at the old Bally Haly course, and he looked exhausted. Payette says he passed the man a log to latch on to as Frampton held onto Payette's legs to prevent him from falling in as well. She was on the phone with 911 all the while. "She told them, 'There's a man in the pond. He's drowning. We need help right here,'" Payette recalled. "Finally, I yelled out, 'We need the fire department right now!'... I didn't know how long I would be able to hold him," he said. Payette soon realized that this man fell into the water because he was trying to retrieve his dog, who jumped in because there was a dead dog at the bottom of the pond. The man was getting anxious, and couldn't wait for emergency responders to arrive. Finally, someone else passed by and Payette asked him for a hand. "We were able to, the two of us, pull him up and get him up so that his bum was now on the ground and he was safe," Payette said. The dog was soon rescued by police, but only after the officers slipped on the rubber — but caught their footing before another person went overboard. 'What if we hadn't been there?' The unlucky man and his dog were taken in for a checkup, says Payette, but it wasn't the last Payette saw of him. "He brought us a lovely bottle of champagne, which he didn't have to, [but] which my wife and I are going to enjoy," said Payette. It was a surreal experience for the former broadcaster. He says he's rescued the odd cat from a tree, has seen the aftermath of disastrous events, but hasn't been involved in anything of this magnitude. Reflecting on his career as a reporter, Payette said, "As an observer, you're standing back." "This was totally different. Suddenly you're in the middle of it," he added. "All of those different questions go through your mind after the fact…what if we hadn't been there?"
CBC
12-05-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Joyriders suspected to be behind damage to Bally Haly putting green
'It's a big mess,' says Mike Curran, general manager of Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. Johns. He says getting the course in good shape is already a tough feat, especially with the Canada Games just a few months away. The CBC's Terry Roberts has the story.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Bally Haly blues: Vandalized green frustrates manager, golfers leading up to Canada Games
Someone used off-road vehicle to chew up putting service on 7th hole of St. John's course Caption: The green on the seventh hole at the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. John's was badly damaged by one or more off-road vehicles over the weekend. (Terry Roberts/CBC) A grounds crew is scrambling to repair the green on the seventh hole at Bally Haly, after someone on an off-road vehicle damaged the delicate putting surface over the weekend. It's a costly setback ahead of this summer's Canada Games, with the course scheduled to host the golfing competition. "They came in here and they were just doing doughnuts; tearing up the sod. It's a big mess," said Mike Curran, general manager at the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in the east end of St. John's. Sometime Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, one or more off-road vehicles drove onto the delicately manicured putting surface and repeatedly did 360s, with spinning tires shredding the closely mowed grass. It could be a month before golfers are back on this green, and the damage will cost thousands to repair, said Curran. "It's going to be a lot of work for us over the next couple of weeks to get this back to where it should be. We also need the co-operation of the weather to help us with that, too," he said. "Growing grass and Newfoundland is not the easiest thing in the world. So between myself and the rest of the staff, we're going to do everything we can to get this back to where it should be in the next couple of weeks." A temporary green has been set up on No. 7, and longtime golfer Joe Lake made an impressive shot off the tee on Monday morning, rolling to within six feet of the hole, even with some snow falling. But like many who play at Bally Haly, he's not impressed with the vandalism. "There's a small element that they get a charge out of doing stuff like this. We're the people that got to suffer," said Lake. It appears the joyriders entered through a path off the No. 8 hole, and did doughnuts on the teeing ground. Police officers visited the club on Monday to investigate the incident. It's not the attention Bally Haly was looking for as employees prepare to host the Canada Games in August. "We want to have this place in pristine shape and this is going to set us back a bit. We'll get there, but it's going to set us back," said Curran. The damage will be be fixed, but will the vandals be back? Curran said that's a real worry, so there's a plan to install barriers at some access points, though it's impossible to barricade the entire course. "Hopefully the community will help us keep these people away," he said.
