Losing a Golf Ball on the PGA Tour

[David L Yskes]

30 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

And then they always say, “ back there!? Must’ve hit a tree....” lol.

that tricky tree in the middle of the fairway...... he's a wiley sucker....   

 

21 hours ago, we5rnuts said:

I too lose balls from time to time. One of the cheaper courses I play is pretty lax about mowing and I’ve even lost a couple in the middle of the fairway. Almost as bad as the ones that have rolled into ground squirrel holes at the base of trees. Once snake season starts, they can keep em. 

one of the courses i play ( only cuz of my dad ) their fairways can get soft, and i've had a few shots get embedded into the ground to never be seen again....  then during the fall, the fairways get covered in leafs..... so once again a good fairway shot, can get lost in a sea of leafs....     

 

[Carl3]

11 hours ago, David L Yskes said:

can get lost in a sea of leafs

True. I was out on Saturday and the entire fairway on #4 was covered in cottonwood debris. Good luck finding a white ball in all of that. The incident I was talking about the fairway was perfect and tightly mowed. You probably could have seen a golf tee laying on it from 10 yards and it was not soft.

[cutchemist42]

Hard to find a good photo of the extreme rough at my course, but its definitely hard to find a ball in it. The course actually writes on the scorecard that you they dont you want you to look for it if you know it went there to save time and aren't playing a tourney round. (I think for handicap, they write you writing an x-score)

My tee shots definitely are benefitted more on a traditional course where holes are side-by-side.

Best I can do is set the shot measure on my GPS on iffy shots, walk to 250 and start looking in that area.

 

http://www.eighteenunderpar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/dakota-dunes-1.jpg

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by cutchemist42

[edomingox]

the trick to finding your ball is to pick a marker where the ball may be.  I find that I find other people's ball better than they do because I choose a marker near where their ball may have disappeared, all while they are searching for their ball 10-20 yards further up because they think they hit farther than they really do.

[cooke119]

I have a friend I play with who will not stop looking for his ball! This at times really gets me pissed, and he is hitting really inexpensive balls not like a ProV1. We can have guys waiting on the tee behind us and he will not stop looking. I have had occasion to just take the cart and drive away leaving him to search. Finally, after a lot of bitching and moaning he'll drop another ball, always in the perfect place, and hit. He keeps his own score so I doubt he is counting the lost ball as a stroke but I don't say anything, (we're not playing for money so...). Anyway he is a friend off the course as well but at times it is really frustrating. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

[iacas]

On 6/1/2018 at 1:30 AM, cutchemist42 said:

Hard to find a good photo of the extreme rough at my course, but its definitely hard to find a ball in it.

How about this?

Or this story: the other day I hit the ball about two feet right of the second green at Whispering Woods. This is on a slight downslope so it's often wet, and before last week it's been cooler and wetter, so the grass has grown (see the above video on Instagram).

Well I stepped two feet away to take some practice swings… and then had to spend 15 seconds looking for my ball again.

[Buckeyebowman]

I have had that happen!

[fishgolf]

On ‎5‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 10:41 AM, David L Yskes said:

Ok, so i've had this thought, for the last couple of years, that if PGA Pro's ( mainly men ) didnt have course marshals and the crowd, to help them find a hit ball, that they would lose a bunch of golf balls.... 

For sure they would lose more balls.  I marshalled at The Boeing Classic a number of times and TPC Snoqualmie has some very thick woods.  Pretty sure a number of balls we located, having been along the landing area, would not have been found by the player and caddie. This brings up a question whether tournament rounds have better scoring averages as a result.  

 

[Papa Steve 55]

Its like losing a member of your family....

 

[David L Yskes]

So after watching the Memorial tournament finish today, and seeing Kyle Stanley on hole 18, hit his drive off a tree and the ball bounced back 40+ yards and into the rough..  and then seeing Stanley walk up to where he thought his ball was going to be, made me giggle cuz i instantly thought of this post....  he had no clue where his ball was.... if the marshal had not told him where his ball went, he would of never looked for his ball where it did end up at.....