Golf Ball Recovery

Golf ball diving has probably been around as long as the game itself. For youngsters in search of adventure and for some college students trying to make a few dollars, the practice is not new. However, with the price of new golf balls running from $1.50 to $4.00 each, businesses specializing in reconditioned balls are springing up around the country. Their need for recovered balls is spawning a new vocation - professional golf ball diver.

Although golf ball diving may not involve the depths or equipment that most commercial diving involves, it is a form of commercial diving. As such, "it requires that the divers fully comply with commercial diving regulations and their inherent safety oriented provisions. A potential for death or injury exists, especially because the majority of such activity is performed by recreationally trained divers who lack commercial diving training, a fact noted and commented on by PADI, NAUI, and YMCA training agencies. There are, however, a number of professional organizations with properly trained commercial diving personnel who engage in golf ball recovery," according to ADC Executive Director Ross Saxon.

Actually, some recovery methods do not involve diving; retrieval is often done with makeshift machinery put together by the users. When diving is necessary, most efforts employ scuba equipment because few rivers and ponds abutting golf courses are deeper than 40 feet. Many of the divers who do the recovery do it as a sideline; they are actually employed elsewhere.

Some are members of fire department rescue squads or of the military. Others are employed by commercial diving companies. Many have active businesses involved in resale of the reconditioned balls and take part in retrieval themselves. Whatever the diver’s level of training, and whatever his background or involvement in the entire process, each step of the golf ball’s journey from the bottom of a pond back to the golfer’s tee can put money in the diver’s pockets - and possibly some interesting "war stories" to share with his buddies.

Professional Golf Ball Services, Inc. (P.G.S.I.) in Houston, Texas, is owned and managed by former professional golfers David Jones, Gary Krueger, and Bart Cobb. Offering reconditioned balls for 50 - 75 percent less than the cost of new ones, the company employs independent contractors to supply recovered golf balls at 10 cents each. When questioned about the dangers involved in fishing for the lost golf balls - specifically, snakes and alligators - David Jones said that most of the reptiles do not pose a threat because they are "basically non-aggressive." However, he did recount the story of one diver’s encounter with an alligator. The diver was on the bottom of a pond when he felt something settle down on his back. Reaching up to touch whatever it was, he felt the bumpy back of the ’gator. That diver "practically walked on water getting out of there!" Jones chuckles. He didn’t say what the poor unsuspecting alligator did.

Matt Anthony, 22 years old, and his brother Nick, 18, will recover golf balls in "any size pond you have on your course." Nick is an avid golfer and he earns money for his favorite pastime by diving for golf balls and selling them back to the club for 25 cents each. Sometimes the brothers give back most of the balls, keeping ten percent for themselves. Matt says that they have given 4,000 recovered balls to the Junior Golf League at the Polo Fields Golf and Country Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Matt says that he and Nick have recovered some pretty interesting objects while searching for golf balls. A large, fully opened table umbrella was one find, and golf clubs are not at all unusual. "Once we were approached by a foursome who asked us to recover the four clubs they had thrown in the water the week before," he says.

Michael Fleming owns and operates Pro’s Source Golf Balls in Savannah, Georgia. In an article in the Carolina Morning News, Joel Zuckerman wrote about Fleming's operation, which consists of a small retail outlet that sells high quality reconditioned golf balls. However, the majority of his business is wholesale, selling balls by the tens of thousands to stores, golf clubs, pro shops and retail customers via the Internet. Fleming is developing a foreign market also. "We are trying to move in that direction because used balls in foreign countries can sell for up to $3 apiece," he says.

Fleming has about 120 courses under contract; he pays for the right to recover the balls, or he returns a percentage of them to the club. In the recovery operations, retrieval may be accomplished by use of roller equipment - two golf carts with winches. With a cable joining the two carts, which are positioned on either side of the body of water, two operators drag the roller along the bottom of the hazard. If there are irrigation pipes on the bottom to interfere with the roller, Fleming and his employees turn to diving. He once had a close call when he and a former employee were underwater with about 100 pounds of golf balls each (about 1,000 balls) in bags around their necks. Relying on bouyancy control valves to get them to the surface, the two men got into trouble when they ran out of air, making the BC valves useless. They did manage to struggle to the surface - still hanging on to the bags.

Other dangers faced by Fleming and his divers include golf balls zipping over their heads, snapping turtles, water moccasins, and - of course - the pesky alligators.

Divers, however, are not the only ones exposed to danger. They may pose a bit of a threat themselves - to unsuspecting golfers - giving a whole new meaning to the word hazard on the golf course. Fleming says, "Our wet suits are all black, and when we surface covered with weeds, we look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon." He tells of surfacing near a lady who was looking for her ball in the water. Startled by his sudden, weed-covered appearance, she lost her balance and tumbled into the lake.

"Another time I was near the bottom of a lagoon when I felt something jabbing me in the side. I grabbed and pulled at it, and ended up with a ball retriever. I came to the surface in time to see an older gentleman running away - abandoning his cart, clubs, and companions. He didn’t stop until he got to the clubhouse!" Fleming adds.

Most golfers are probably glad that golf balls can’t talk, but the next time you tee up, show a little respect to that innocuous, pallid little orb. It might have a history - and a story to tell. UW