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Taking good balls from range buckets


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My takeaway, is this really a problem that any driving range cares about? Am I losing sleep on this? Nope. Just as a business case, if I buy a 10,000 range balls, am I really going to be concerned with some found balls from wayward shots. Probably not. And if they are I probably won't be hitting balls there anytime soon. Just saying.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

My takeaway is to get into the low light high resolution surveillance camera business. . .

Time better spent would be to put GPS chips in golf balls and track their migratory patterns

I have some idea what happens to some balls and here's a few scenarios:

1) Two golfers tee off in opposite directions on adjacent fairways, and end up using each others balls because they think they hit farther than they do.

2) Ball gets sliced into another fairway by golfer A, and golfer B then thinks it's his ball and hits the ball from player A. Eventually they end up on opposing fairways at about the same time and hit their tee shots getting back to scenario 1. They end up returning their balls to each other after several holes.

3) Ball gets lost in the woods, and stays there for a month. The same golfer then finds the said ball because his shot pattern is roughly the same every time, and uses it for the remainder of the hole or round depending upon whether or not it get's lost again. A month later the same golfer finds the second ball and plays it and so on and so forth. . .

4) Ball gets sliced into another fairway, and another golfer then uses it for a while and it ends up being placed on the wall of Aces when the other golfer hits his first Ace. The original golfer notices it and says nothing because he shot a 73 that day (the score of his life). His friends ask if that was originally his ball because they "think" it's his "mark", but in reality it "wasn't". . .no way. . .

5) Ball gets hooked or sliced OB, jogger running in the same direction finds it and throws it back onto the course near the hole, where the golfer decides that he actually hit that 450 yard drive, chips in for eagle.

6) Another golfer picks up a tee shot (fair game after it stopped rolling), and the picker upper puts it in his bag. A year later, he pulls it out and plays it out and hits it wild can't find it and abandons it. The original golfer finds it and sees that the markings are his, then plays the ball for a triple because the ball is inside some trees and he can't for the life of himself figure out how his perfect fairway shot ended up there? His partner thinking he also hit the fairway then proceeds to use his more current ball for the remainder of the round.

7) Golfer in scenario 2 does not get his original ball back, but his playing partner gets it and the golfer then notices the imprint of his "mark" on his playing partners driver face. Gets his ball back after the hole is completed.

I'm sure we can start a thread that describes the migratory habits of balls. . .

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Anyone ever hit a ball at the range that was a few feet or yards in front of you or behind you that wasn't from your bucket? How about searching the woods on the edge of the range and hitting them back into the range? You didn't rent those balls so that be stealing too.
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Anyone ever hit a ball at the range that was a few feet or yards in front of you or behind you that wasn't from your bucket? How about searching the woods on the edge of the range and hitting them back into the range? You didn't rent those balls so that be stealing too.

Good point, except some of us have unlimited range balls. In that case, you are doing the "hand picking" for them. It's pretty dangerous doing that too!

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Agreed. Whether you justify it one way or another, it's still stealing. Stop kidding yourselves... At least be honest with yourself about it and say "I steal premium range balls". You may be a thief, but at least you'd be honest. Btw, I don't steal them.

in another post I can't find you congratulated me for admitting I'm a thief and then said I hope the guys I play against check my card before paying out. I'm honest when I say I take balls from the range ( I do technically replace them and then some when I hit balls at the range i find on the courses) And I am also honest on the course following the rules and counting every stroke. Everyone has their lines I guess but please don't assume people aren't honest just because they are thieves. :-)

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My takeaway, is this really a problem that any driving range cares about? Am I losing sleep on this? Nope.

Just as a business case, if I buy a 10,000 range balls, am I really going to be concerned with some found balls from wayward shots. Probably not. And if they are I probably won't be hitting balls there anytime soon. Just saying.

More rationalizing?

Anyone ever hit a ball at the range that was a few feet or yards in front of you or behind you that wasn't from your bucket? How about searching the woods on the edge of the range and hitting them back into the range? You didn't rent those balls so that be stealing too.

Not the same thing.

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Agree to disagree. Hitting balls you didn't pay for is stealing in my book. We all have our lines that we cross or don't cross.
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^ ...and hitting broken tees you find that you didn't pay for is stealing too. We should throw the kid in jail who found John Daly ' s iron in the water. It didn't belong to him. If you get some broken balls in your range bucket you should never replace it with a range ball sitting a couple of feet from you b/c you paid for broken balls. Done with sarcasm: As we can all see situational ethics can get really silly. That's why I disagree with the name calling and labels. I will never take a range ball for myself. I won't judge you if you do. If I'm playing with you I would probably laugh or tease you though, b/c it seems wierd to me
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^ ...and hitting broken tees you find that you didn't pay for is stealing too. We should throw the kid in jail who found John Daly ' s iron in the water. It didn't belong to him. If you get some broken balls in your range bucket you should never replace it with a range ball sitting a couple of feet from you b/c you paid for broken balls. Done with sarcasm: As we can all see situational ethics can get really silly. That's why I disagree with the name calling and labels. I will never take a range ball for myself. I won't judge you if you do. If I'm playing with you I would probably laugh or tease you though, b/c it seems wierd to me

I guess the proper thing to do is pick up all the broken tees, toss them in the trash, and report the litterbugs to the proper authorities.:-)

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I"m getting even more cynical reading this thread.


I guess everything is in the eye of the beholder. Lots of rationalization here...

Why not say, "Yes, I stuff a nice ball found on the range into my pocket once in a while, and until reading this thread, didn't really think about it."

1. Think I'll just put it in the driver pile and hit it;

2. Now that I thought about it, I think it's still a lost ball, and I just "found" it.

3. It's wrong to take it, but it's not hurting anyone (arguable), and I only do it once in a while, so no BFD.

4. Shut up, Des.

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I just don't care. I don't do it, but it's mostly cuz I'm not hurting for balls and no matter what it looks like I don't really know it's condition. Here's some more rationalization for ya though: if I found a ball lost on the course that had a unique marking, then by some coincidence I played with the owner of said ball in a future round I'd give it to him and I certainly wouldn't keep it and say "it's mine now cuz you abandoned it." Likewise, I have no qualms with people who swipe a ball here and there that clearly found its way into a range basket by accident.
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I've hit many scuffed up prov1s that I found into the range I go to. There is no course near it. And I find prov1s in my bucket that are nicer that i keep on occassion. Surely the range owner isn't buying prov1s so my guess is other golfers are contributing balls like me. So who are we stealing from?
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I've hit many scuffed up prov1s that I found into the range I go to. There is no course near it. And I find prov1s in my bucket that are nicer that i keep on occassion. Surely the range owner isn't buying prov1s so my guess is other golfers are contributing balls like me. So who are we stealing from?

Usually, it's someone wanting to see how far they hit a real ball. I see this quite often as well.

It's still wrong to take, though.

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Usually, it's someone wanting to see how far they hit a real ball. I see this quite often as well. It's still wrong to take, though.

Is it ? The range bought a set amount of balls for the season. These are extra balls contributed by golfers like you said wanting to see how well they hit certain balls. The bigger crime just might be using their range with balls you didn't rent from them.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Usually, it's someone wanting to see how far they hit a real ball. I see this quite often as well.

It's still wrong to take, though.

Is it ? The range bought a set amount of balls for the season. These are extra balls contributed by golfers like you said wanting to see how well they hit certain balls. The bigger crime just might be using their range with balls you didn't rent from them.

Look, it's wrong to take any ball from the range. Doesn't matter how they got there. You're right that they shouldn't use the range to test real balls. Many of the balls that some golfers "contribute" jam up the machines and such.

It's not a straightforward thing, so the easiest thing is to not take any balls just like @turtleback stated. Better not to be questioned.

Golfsmith sells 100 balls for $25 and often has $15 coupons, so you can get balls for 0.10USD a piece that perform like the range ball "finds".

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"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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Is it ? The range bought a set amount of balls for the season. These are extra balls contributed by golfers like you said wanting to see how well they hit certain balls. The bigger crime just might be using their range with balls you didn't rent from them.

Yes, it's wrong to take things that don't belong to you.  No matter how you try to justify it to us or yourself it's stealing.  I am amazed that some of you don't seem to grasp the concept that if something doesn't belong to you and you take it, it's stealing.

I get that there are different degrees of theft and stealing a golf ball from a range is probably at the bottom of the list for horrible crimes, but how can you call it anything but theft?

Joe Paradiso

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