Article on: Man Makes $15MM Diving for Lost Golf Balls

[boogielicious]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2583289-man-started-retrieving-lost-golf-balls-from-pond-for-work-has-made-15-million

That's a lot of golf balls!

By Katie Richcreek

Glenn Berger was partially unemployed and stealing golf balls out of a golf course lake near his home when a million-dollar idea struck him. Sell the golf balls.

Fourteen years later, Berger has made $15 million diving for golf balls.

He estimates personally retrieving 1.3 to 1.7 million balls per year, which he then cleans and sells back to golf courses at about $1 a pop.

[Pretzel]

That's a lot of golf balls!

Almost 4,000 per day if he takes holidays off. He must search the courses with a lot of bad golfers! 

[No Mulligans]

Assuming he takes two weeks off from diving a year for vacation....

15,000,000 divided by 14 years divided by 350 days per year = 3,061 golf balls retrieved a night from one course.  I'm calling bull on that.

[GolfTheMoon]

Was he one of the first guys to do this? It just seems like golf courses would have figured they had a gold mine of free balls in their own lakes like 50 years ago. Maybe that's how he pulled that 1.7 million ball figure, he found 50+ years of balls at the bottom of every lake!

But I still doubt he was the first to do this, and there's no way he found that many balls in that amount of time.

[David in FL]

I'm sorry, I don't believe that he sells water balls for $1 each.....especially regardless of type and condition.

I have talked to ball divers before though and know that they can pull many thousands of balls out in a day, given the right course.

 

[saevel25]

Was he one of the first guys to do this? It just seems like golf courses would have figured they had a gold mine of free balls in their own lakes like 50 years ago. Maybe that's how he pulled that 1.7 million ball figure, he found 50+ years of balls at the bottom of every lake!

There is a course in Florida that sold all the water balls it dredges up on the course. Since there is water in play on nearly every hole. They advertise them to golfers who don't want to loose their own golf balls on the course. About half our group bought a dozen golf balls and then ended up donating them back to the course. :) 

They were like 12-15 bucks a dozen depending on the golf ball. 
 

I'm sorry, I don't believe that he sells water balls for $1 each.....especially regardless of type and condition.

Course in Massillon Ohio has a pond near some homes. People there put out a table with golf balls they dredged up. They sell them for 1 dollar a golf ball. Except they keep all the Pro-V's :p  

[rkim291968]

I read other articles on the topic.   Only best premium balls are sold for $1.   Also, ball hunters have to pay the course per ball collected or for the privilege of collecting.  Some start a business and hire additional divers.   My understanding is, it is a hard way to make a decent living for most.

An eye catching article for sure but the reality is/could be different for most.

Edited October 27, 2015 by rkim291968

[Gator Hazard]

I had read this article and called baloney as well. You sell in bulk for like 10-20 cents a ball on average at the plumes they deal in. Good ball retrievers in Good areas with all the gear can make 100k or so a year.