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OGDEN — In the game of golf, there are all kinds of hazards. But when a golf course sits right next to a school, a new hazard comes into play: the playground. Turns out wayward golf balls and kids at recess just don't mix.
No parent expects their child to get a black eye from a golf ball coming from somewhere off the playground. But that's exactly what happened to Timothy Anaya on May 2 when he was talking with some friends during recess at Venture Academy.
Timothy was standing in the field area when he was hit in the head by a golf ball. The golfer was a couple hundred yards away at the nearby Mulligan's Golf facility.
"It sorta felt like playing dodge ball with wrenches," Timothy said. "Then I saw the golf ball and I go, ‘Holy crap! I didn't know a golf ball could hurt that bad!' "
He went to the nurse's office and called his mom. When she arrived, she couldn't believe what she saw.
"(It was) a big goose egg. It was huge!" LaDawn Anaya said.
She said she was really scared, especially when the swelling hit.
"It was out to here," Timothy said, gesturing his hand in front of his face. "Then the next day it was to there, and the black eye was like, foom!"
In the weeks since the accident, Timothy has healed from his bump and black eye, but his mom's fears haven't gone away.
"I know it's only one kid that got hit, but it's one that didn't have to get hit at all," LaDawn Anaya said.
She wants something to be done to prevent another child from getting hit. So far, she said she's had little response from Mulligan's Golf.
KSL News spoke to the owner of Mulligan's Golf Thursday, and he said when there are accidents there's a procedure he follows. It starts with an incident report, which he hasn't seen.
