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Ball Hawker


bkuehn1952

1,788 views

Are you a Ball Hawker?  

10 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you look for/collect lost balls?

    • Yes
      1
    • Sometimes
      1
    • No, not really
      4
    • Never
      4

I am a former golf ball “hawker.” You know the guy; their 15th club is a ball retriever. They are often found lurking around ponds and the heavily forested right side of fairways.

It is hard for me to recall when I became obsessed with finding golf balls. Maybe I should blame my parents! They moved to Florida after my father retired in 1988. Their home was on the 15th hole at the TPC Prestancia in Sarasota. The 15th is a dogleg left par 5 that curves around a large pond. The green is located on a peninsula that juts out into the pond. Many, many golf balls have found a watery grave on #15.

In the evenings, after the last groups had gone through, my father would stroll along the edge of the pond and scoop a few balls out. He used to joke that he could estimate economic conditions by the type of balls he found. Lots of Titleists = “Good Times” and lots of Topflites = “Recession.” When my wife and I would visit, I started to join him on his strolls. Soon, I was going out every evening whether my father wanted to or not.

Back in the Mitten State, I bought myself a ball retriever and started ball hawking in earnest. Once I went out at a local 9-holer late in the afternoon following some stormy weather. No one was playing and eventually I came to the 7th hole, a par 3 with a pond covering the 130 yards to the green. For some reason the course had lowered the water level and when I came around the corner, there were 100’s of golf balls littering the pond.  Jack Pot! I spent 30 minutes hauling balls out of the water hazard and only stopped when I couldn’t fit any more balls in my bag.

I started filling 2-gallon popcorn tins with balls and gave them to friends and relatives. Still, my supply kept growing. I became pickier about what I would keep. Rejects were left on the next tee for someone else to collect. The better balls were given away or played.

Three things eventually halted my obsession: my wife, tournament golf, and “Harry.” My wife told me she did not want to be featured in a news story about the widow who had a basement filled with 100,000 golf balls. She told me to get rid of them. Also, I began to play low level amateur golf tournaments. I did not think hauling around a ball retriever fit well with the image of a serious tournament player. Finally, one day I was following a foursome of very senior golfers at the Bobby Jones complex in Sarasota. They were not moving very quickly, and our group was always right on their heels. As we walked off the 5th green, I watched one of the octogenarians deploy a ball retriever and start fishing for balls. One of his group yelled, “Put the damn retriever away Harry and get your ass moving.” I decided I did not want to be “Harry.”

The ball retriever went into the basement, and I stopped looking for any balls other than mine or the guys in my group. My supply shrank and soon, I had to occasionally buy some balls.

Fast forward to today. I continue to be in ball hawking remission … most of the time. Once our golf season comes to an end and courses close, my wife and I walk several local clubs for fresh air and exercise. I do tend to steer our walks along the right side of the fairway and snag the occasional ball out of the long grass and forest. No more ball retriever or fishing in ponds. If I can’t get to a ball with a couple of steps, it stays lost. I still give balls away and those that are of modest quality or condition are taken to a local mom & pop range and “donated” during a practice session.

Thanks Harry.

7 Comments


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I will not even spend much time looking for my ball if I figure it will be unplayable.

1) no desire to get ticks, poison ivy etc. going into the woods. A player in northern Michigan got attacked by bees when he ventured into some woods, it did not end well.  Just not worth it.

2) I play 1 specific ball and if I had several random balls in my bag I would eventually forget what ball I grabbed then risk hitting a wrong ball.

3) Three words “ Pace of Play”

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I am not sure how to answer this.  What I do is go searching for my or playing partners golf balls when it isn't immediately visible.  If I happen to see a lost ball, I will pick it up.  Does that come under the "Sometimes" or "No, not really" or does it belong in another category 🤷‍♀️

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Oh my goodness. I don't even spend all that much time looking for my own ball. 

Not only do I not ball hawk. I don't pick up balls off the course that I come across in my normal course of play. You just never know when somebody from out of your sight hit that there and will be coming over the hill shortly to try to find it. 

A buddy and I were once paired up with a couple of guys that were big time ball hawkers. For one it was frustrating (Harry.) But the one guy was kind of a jerk. It was during league and we are coming up 9 which runs parallel (separated by just a few large trees) to hole 5, which is the most challenging hole on the course. Anyway, this guy finds a ball which he's excited about. It's in pristine condition and expensive. I told him not to pick it up because it was probably somebody coming up hole 5. He takes a glance doesn't see anyone and pockets the ball. 

Sure enough 2 minutes later there's a guy hunting around for his ball right in that location. So I tell the guy I think our guy picked up your ball by mistake. What ball are you looking for? He says what it was and the guy who picked it up lied. Flat out lied. Said nope, and showed him one of his own balls and said this is the one I picked up. I knew he lied so while the ball hawker was out of ear shot I told the guy. Yeah, our guy picked up your ball. 

Since we are supposed to be playing tournament rules, we all had no idea what to do. So, I suggested he drop one around where the crime was committed and also play another ball out as if he'd lost it. Keep both scores and ask our tournament guy which one should count. 

Sure enough, next day we all get an email talking about lost ball rules and golf courtesy and not picking up balls that could be in play. 

I've had at least a couple of occasions where I have literally caught a guy picking up my ball while I was playing a tournament. Both times they immediately lied about it. Only when I pressed them did they admit to it. In my experience ball hawking addicts cannot be trusted. 

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I only look for golf balls that my playing partners or I have hit. I never look to pick golf balls that others have left on the course. I almost never play with golf balls I find around the course anyway, so there's no point in looking for them. Like @ChetlovesMer, I don't pick up random balls I see on the course on the off chance that it may be someone's ball in play.

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If I find a ball while looking for mine and I’m sure no one is looking for it, I’ll drop it in the rough for someone else to find. At one local 9 hole muni near me, we often see lots of balls that others have found and left out.

That being said, I regularly played with this couple in NH last spring. They knew I played Snell. They live on the corner of a tough dog leg par 4 and lots of balls get hit into the edge of their property. When I got to play with them late last October, they handed me several Snell! 

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Good read! sometimes I dream that I'm in a swimming pool full of golf ball in the bottom and I usually go up and down picking them up until I wake up and get really disappointed. 

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I never understand this aspect of golfers. If you are serious about golf, and I know that the writer is, the golf ball is the one piece of equipment that you use on every shot. Why wouldn't you use something you're comfortable with? And don't even think about using a water ball to go over a hazard. If you don't have confidence to use your regular ball, why attempt the shot? Show your ball some love and it will return it. Well, occasionally.

  • Funny 1
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