Did you catch the story in The New York Times Golf Blog about lost golf balls?
Written by Bill Pennington, it started off by talking about the 100K golf balls found in Scotland’s Loch Ness (as in monster). Clearly, there’s a lack of actual driving ranges in Scotland, so why not?
Okay, all kidding aside. The story goes on to discuss the negative ecological impact of lost golf balls. For most of us, the negative impact is on our wallets.
Pennington mentions how “the retrieval and discount repackaging of lost golf balls has mushroomed into a lucrative business expanding into global emerging markets.”
A year and a half ago, I wrote a story about one such business: Lostgolfballs.com. What they do is retrieve golf balls from the lakes and water hazards of over 2000 resorts, private facilities and top daily fee courses in 32 states. The balls are then shipped to one location where they are cleaned with soap and water and sorted by hand into various brands, models, conditions and offerings, which are then made available for purchase.
The company offers a huge selection of “perfect” and “near perfect” golf balls from most every renowned golf ball manufacturer. At the time of my article, Lostgolfballs.com had retrieved and sold over 220 million golf balls.
Most golf courses discourage “ball hawking” because it tends to slow up the game. There are benefits to finding lost balls while searching for your own. You may discover a brand that works for you. Plus, there’s nothing like playing with a lost ball over a long carry or near water — it’s like playing with house money.
Check out the article and the comments (Quite amusing actually!).
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