Environmental impact of golf balls

[cksanjose]

Interesting article on lost golf balls:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/...lls/index.html

[denver_nuggs_15]

I guess I'll try even harder not to lose a ball.

[James_Black]

Interesting.

Loch Ness used as a driving range?

Most golfballs are confined to the golf course though so do they count as litter?

[steve8820]

tree huggers.......

[plugged]

Harvie had this advice: "Keep your balls on the fairway or invest in a stock of biodegradable balls."

Biodegradable golf balls? Yes, I've tried them. They're called dandelions.

What a bunch of friggin' idiots.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Interesting subject.. With all the focus on the golf courses themeselves being eco-friendly the thought of how the actual ball effects the enviornment never occured to me.

[NormH3]

"concern is growing.."
Yeah..5 guys in a rubber room.

[FHopper]

Everything is relative, I am much more concerned about the tire dump that mysteriously burns every 5 years.

"Course manager for the Danish Golf Union, Torben Kastrup Petersen, said the scale of the problem is unknown: "There has been very little research on the environmental impact of golf balls, but it's safe to say the indicators are not good. We are planning to collaborate with environmentalists in America to conduct more tests to fully explore the extent of the problem.""

And there are honest workers out of work right now, life is so unfair.

[shaun]

This isn't real research; it's a disingenuous attempt to make a headline. Are these guys really trying to tell us that, of all the environmental problems they could've studied, "golf ball litter" was the most pressing? And without a doubt, this research will have been publicly funded. C'mon. For what it's worth, I'd suggest that Loch Ness (and, for pity's sake, the moon!) are exceptions. The overwhelming majority of golf balls are not hit with the purpose of them sinking to the bottom of a lake; they're hit into places that are accessible, so that they can be retrieved and reused. In my experience, lake ranges are usually netted so that the balls can be recovered. Golf clubs also periodically recover balls lost in water hazards, or at least mine does.

[microcrayfish]

I doubt the problem is as bad as it will undoubtedly be made out to be. A lot of those 300 million golf balls that are lost are most likely found again by other golfers or greens keepers. Where do you think the market for used golf balls gets its product? Of course environmental types like to exaggerate and sensationalise things like this so it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

[Clambake]

Arrggh, apparently I've been guilty of environmental terrorism for years - I hope Homeland Security doesn't have me on their watch list.

[zeg]

I doubt the problem is as bad as it will undoubtedly be made out to be. A lot of those 300 million golf balls that are lost are most likely found again by other golfers or greens keepers. Where do you think the market for used golf balls gets its product? Of course environmental types like to exaggerate and sensationalise things like this so it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

Perhaps, but in fairness, it's probably worse than most people would like to assume it is.

It's easy and fun to snipe at people who do esoteric research, but it's important not to get too carried away. Sure, it's important to work on the "big," obvious problems, but a lot of important discoveries have come out of a clever researcher scratching an intellectual itch. Maybe golf balls aren't the biggest ecological problem, but without serious research it's hard to quantify where they lie on the scale. And, before throwing too many stones, ask yourself if you expend all your professional effort on feeding the world's hungry, curing cancer, cleaning the floating debris out of the Pacific, etc. Probably not...

[iPutt]

On a similar point, my environmental teacher says it's horrible how we're channeling major amounts of water from the Colorado River in order to water the golf courses in places like Arizona. But what are we golfers supposed to do? Limit ourselves to Florida and California in the winter?

[Trav]

There can't be 300 million lost balls - that would mean every golfer would have a real handicap at least 10 strokes higher than they do now.

[PrairieParson]

To the best of my knowledge, this is just some do gooder trying to kill someone elses good time. Having had a background, I thought the claim that the zinc was a heavy metal was bogus claim. As far as I can determine it is. Zinc is in your body. People take zinc in pill form for their health. Zinc is a common metal used in die casting to make all kinds of things. I believe Pennies are made largely of zinc. I checked wikipedia and found no reference to zinc as a heavy metal. Hexavalent chrome, mercury, cadmium and lead are some nasty elements and compounds. Not zinc, as far as I know.

IMHO, this is pure junk science. If they were so worried about the environmental damage of common articles, what about the mercury in florescent lights, which we will all be forced to buy soon. Thank you G. Bush. Those things can break in your house. I'd doubt anyone will ever die from a golf ball, unless it bounces off someone's head.

[duppy]

Thanks for your time---I never would have guessed the # of lost balls each year---Thats alot of dollars---Thanks again!!!!!!

[kfowler]

Wow, I was shocked to see this on CNN, well not really. The article totally contradicted the same story I saw on another station. They said there were several thousands not hundreds of thousands. They also said there was no environmental impact.

[Clambake]

On a similar point, my environmental teacher says it's horrible how we're channeling major amounts of water from the Colorado River in order to water the golf courses in places like Arizona. But what are we golfers supposed to do? Limit ourselves to Florida and California in the winter?

Have to be Florida. Southern Cal is a coastal desert and imports most its water from the Colorado River also.