18 HOLES & 18 QUESTIONS! Barry Stacey Grande Meadows Golf Course
July 20, 2023BIO: Golf wasn’t on my mind growing up in Lamaline in the late 50’s and early 60’s. However, if anyone had a ball we were always ready for a game – nothing organized mind you. Our family moved to Marystown in 1968 and I was off to MUN in 1969 completing an Education degree before spending 30 years as a teacher in Rushoon and Marystown.
My first experience with golf was on an Eddie Shack driving range in Toronto in the summer of 1973. I was there on a vacation and a couple of my brothers took me there. Having played a little softball my first swing with a golf club resulted in my topping the ball and it rolled of the tee deck some 10 or 15 yards. But I was hooked.
Over the next few years I would play once or twice a summer at Pippy Part or Terra Nova once that opened as well as getting a round in while representing NL at national softball tournaments. I really got into golf when Grande Meadows opened in 1995 and would go over whenever I could.
I had a little success at the club level winning the GM Club Championship 3 times, the Match Play Championship 4 times and the Burin Peninsula Open twice. I love playing in tournaments as well as helping out in organizing them as well.
- What is your full name?
Barry Stacey
2. Where were your born”
Lamaline on the Burin Peninsula
3. Where do you live today?
Marystown
4. What would people be surprised to learn about you?
That I like to pick berries. My favorite would be bakeapples but I also like to pick blueberries and sometimes others like partridge berries or cranberries. My back doesn’t allow me to do it too often though.
5. Are you a member of a golf club and what club?
I am a founding member of Grande Meadows Golf Club in Frenchman’s Cove, NL
6. Who do you regularly play golf with?
I regularly play with Bob Hoyles, Ches Cribb, Edmund Antle & John Bugden. Usually 3 or 4 of us can make it.
7. What’s the favourite course you have ever played?
The Old Course at St. Andrew’s Scotland
8. What course would you like to play anywhere in the world?
Augusta National – the site of the Masters Golf Tournament
9. Where and when did you start golfing?
My first time hitting a golf ball was on an Eddie Shack driving range in Toronto around 1974 and my first time playing a round of golf was around 1980 at Pippy Park. I believe it may have been a 9 hole course then. I played with my friends Dave Brenton and Paul Greene.
10. Can you (briefly) tell us your most memorable golf experience.
It would be my hole-in-one while playing with my daughter Cheryl on the former Black Duck Course at Clovelly Golf Course which is now named Bally Haly North in St. John’s. It was August 9, 2005 on Hole #8.
11. What is your greatest golf accomplishment?
In my time at Grande Meadows myself and Dave Brenton started the 1st Grande Meadows Invitational and 25 years later it is still going. As well I started an 18 hole Burin Peninsula Open Golf Tournament 15 years ago and it is still a popular event in July of each year.
12. What is your favorite movie/book?
My favorite movie of all time would be Waking Ned Devine. I don’t know if I have a favorite book but I do read quite a bit – mostly sports related books. At the moment I am reading a book called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand about the survival of 3 American air craft fighters who had to ditch their plane in the Pacific near Hawaii during World War 2. I recently read a book called Fore! Play by Bill Geist. Get your head out of the mud – it was written at the height of the golf renaissance in 2005 and he purports himself to be the last American man to take up golf. It’s a comic introspective of golf and we can all relate to some of his topics for sure.
13. What is your most treasured golf possession?
My scorecard from the Old Course at St. Andrews which is signed by Jim Mailer who was a member of the R & A at the time. He was the member in our group the day I played and I carded an 84 with 2 birdies.
14. What is your best quality on the golf course?
I am easy going and always ready to play. I’m not too tied up in the old golf etiquette stuff. I love to play ready golf.
15. What is your worst quality on the golf course?
Probably that I play too quickly and don’t take the time sometimes to look things over. But that probably has to do with the fact I can’t read greens very well.
16. What 3 professional golfers would you like to join you at a dream dinner party?
Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Brooke Henderson
17. Have you ever had a hole-in-one?
I have had one and it was August 9, 2005 on Hole #8 at Black Duck Course at Clovelly Golf Course which is now named Bally Haly North in St. John’s.
18. What is your best score ever?
It was a 71 at Grande Meadows Golf Course which I have done a couple of times. Par for 18 holes is 72.