The Lost Golf Ball

For any questions please E-mail rszarka@comcast.net

 Some excerpts from the book.

Golf as a pastime has intrigued, challenged and confounded men and women alike since it first appeared in Scotland. Sometime during the Middle Ages it became an aristocratic pursuit. Not surprisingly few ‘duffers’ develop enviable skills and plenty of well-intended golf balls go astray often landing in what would normally be termed ‘irretrievable circumstance’. That is: irretrievable to all but the very few! Many intrepid entrepreneurs have discovered recovering these errant items is filled with profit and adventure!

This book has been created primarily for people that are interested in earning money in the golf ball industry. Listed are my own experiences collected over many years. I thought back on all the times people playing golf have asked me questions about the lakes, and what it must be like to dive into them. I have added a true stories section at the end of the book. It answers many of the questions a golfer might pose on what it is like to scuba dive for golf balls.
Used golf ball retrieval is a little known multi-million dollar industry. This book explains how to procure the golf balls, how to process them as well as how to sell them and distribute results. Be aware that one method of retrieving the balls (namely diving for them) is extremely hazardous; many people have died in the process. There are many hazards including zero visibility, wild life, dangerous caverns and obstructions under the water.
I have over ten years of working experience in the golf ball industry. I have sold golf balls, dived for balls and processed them. I hope my experience in this field will be valuable to you.
There are many segments to the industry. You could dive for golf balls, wash then sell them, start your own full-fledged company. Or work for an existing company diving for them. Also, you could broker golf balls, in other words buy and sell. The least attractive and less profitable segment is actually working for a company processing balls.
This book covers all areas of information including where to purchase the necessary equipment and chemicals; also permits, licenses and the necessary contracts to get started and to be successful in the golf ball industry.
The end chapters of this book feature some great stories acquired over years of diving for balls in some pretty exotic conditions. You’ll learn some of the slang and terms used by ball divers. How much money making potential is in this business? Costs and expenses of the business and the to do’s and what not to do’s. Little bits of advice that I have acquired over the years as a golf ball retrieval professional.

What to look for in a golf course.

Like any other product golf balls value varies dramatically depending on type, quality, condition, appearance. Also the amount of money you make from a golf course depends on how many water holes there are on the course, what kind of holes (Whether the golfers have to shoot over the water, along side the water). How many rounds of golf they receive a year. These can be very important factors in determining what you are willing to give back for the contract. Naturally the more water holes the more balls will get lost. If they have a lot of shoot over holes there will be a heck of a lot of balls. A shoot over catches on average at least four times as many balls as a regular lake. The second best catching lake will be a slice which is a lake running along the hole off to the right. Ask any golfer one of their biggest problems is usually their slice. The worst catching lakes are off shots (lakes which are way off the direction of play) and hooks which is a lake off to the left side of a hole. Also finding out what kind of course you are dealing with is important. Generally speaking a county or community golf course will attract bargain golfers. They usually buy the cheaper balls. Balls that were cheap new are even cheaper used. This is not a rule of thumb though, depending on the county or community if it is an upper scale community the golf balls tend to be a good quality. Private courses or resort courses tend to hold the best quality of ball. Once you have read the ‘What is a golf ball’ chapter you will understand the drastic price difference in golf balls and what this means for your earning potential. Like cars golf balls have a Mercedes and they have a ford escort.

Gaining Permission

Most people want to jump right in there and start acquiring their white gold! But first you need permission from a golf course to gain access to their lakes. Courses contract out the diving rights to different companies or individuals based upon what they get back in return. Every golf course has a different need; some only want balls returned to them in exchange for diving rights. Others want cash. The most common contract terms are listed below:

Types of water, lake bottoms plus their hazards

Know what kind of water exists on your courses it is important for safeties sake! Knowing whether a giant tree resides under water, there might be an underwater car grave yard, or the lake could be sixty foot deep, if sixteen foot long alligators like to swim there. If you are aware of the lakes hazards at least you are prepared for what you might bump into.

How to Dive

I know I have emphasized many times in this book how dangerous diving can be, but once again I am stating my warnings. Do not attempt to dive for golf balls if you are not a certified diver, newly certified diver, are claustrophobic or you panic easily which is one and the same. Many people have lost their lives golf ball diving! It is one of the most hazardous forms of diving that exists. You will be diving in zero visibility with many obstacles and hazards. You will have excessive weight on your weight belt, the balls you will be lugging around also weigh a lot. The suits that you use are quite cumbersome and the mobility is not good. Because of the lack of visibility you will have no way to check your gauges to see how deep you are or even how much air you have left in your tank. There are many snag hazards and animals you will bump into which can be quite startling when you cant see. I am going to tell you two stories of people I know that have died diving for golf balls. For sake of their privacy I will not use their actual names.

Where in the lake do I find the balls

Knowing where in a lake to find the golf balls can be a huge determining factor in how many balls you find on a dive.

What to do in an emergency

With golf ball diving there is one rule of thumb in ANY emergency! Whether it is you run out of air or you feel dizzy and faint like, you start to panic whatever it is keep this thought in your mind. First thing drop your weight belt!!

What is a golf ball

Well there are so many brands grades types of golf balls. Knowing your golf balls, knowing how to sort them and what they are worth is a very complex issue. It takes quite a while to learn the differences in the balls where they go and what to sell them for. The value of the ball changes dramatically with the condition of the ball, knowing this and what category a particular ball will end up is a very complex issue. I will explain all of this in the next chapter.

Washing the balls

The next must is to wash your golf balls, this is a must after each collection effort since they are always covered in mud and other disgusting stuff. There are three stages to this process, rinse, chlorinate, acid wash.

Grading

This is the process in which you sort the balls into type and quality. See the (What is a golf ball section for more info) Grading is a time consuming and monotonous process, which takes quite a bit of experience to get the knack of. You really have to know your golf balls and where they go, also what makes the difference between a ball making it into grade 1 or a step down into grade 2, 3 or shag.

The Fish Bowl

The fish bowl, it was closest to the ocean and was supposedly just teeming with sea life. I climbed in it was great crystal clear, fish swimming all around me, sea grass off to my right containing little crabs, small conchs everything you would find in the ocean. Wow I thought this will be fun as I descended the edge there were balls everywhere, top edge, middle edge. A lot of the balls had barnacles growing on them, some of them were just one giant barnacle. Little creatures inside of the barnacles. Great I thought now my apron that usually holds around nine hundred balls would hold much less meaning I would have to empty my apron into rice bags many more times than usual. Also the sharp barnacles were cutting holes in my ball apron. The edge was very long dropping me down to around twenty five feet at the bottom. There were hundreds of balls along the bottom edge. Some fresh but many with barnacles and snails, coral attached to them. My hands were getting cut and stung as I did the side to side sweep, so I decided to do the see bee version of collecting where you don't feel in the mud but just grab the balls you see. This was clearly a pond you had to use gloves in. I looked behind me, the water was now pitch black from the dust cloud I had created. A little ahead of me up higher on the bank a pair of horse shoe crabs were following each other, this was a neat site in a golf course pond! As I crawled along I noticed a sting ray a little bit to the left of me mostly covered in sand to camouflage itself, as I got closer it sped off leaving a huge dust cloud and me blind for a minute. It wasn't a good feeling knowing so much hazardous marine life existed in these ponds. I wanted to be able to see. within a few hundred feet I already had three bags of nine hundred balls sitting on the bank! This was a lake loaded full of golf balls. I came to a log submerged beneath the surface under it sat a five or six foot nurse shark which also bolted as I got closer. I continued on my adventure looking above me at giant bluish purplish jelly fish floating by in the current. The water flowed slowly in the direction of the tides. A grassy area came up ahead it was covered in giant jelly fish the size of bread saucers, that had an underside that looked like the weeds. They sat upside down on the bottom. As your hands hit them they stung you and then swam off in giant contractions. This was great all the views of an ocean dive while I earned money. If I had gloves this would be a very enjoyable dive. As I slowly moved along the bottom edge I had a weird feeling like something was watching me and darting off whenever I turned in its direction disappearing into my dust cloud. I stopped for a minute to look around and there he was a six foot barracuda, a few feet above me and off to my left. They are very curious fish and like to follow you around. He followed me for the rest of the dive occasionally darting through the bubbles my regulator produced.