Buying Balls - In a Season, How Many Balls Do You Lose a Round?

[tehuti]

I tend to lose 2-4 balls per round. However I have a large enough stock pile right now to last me through 2020 unless I play a lot of golf next year.

[gbogey]

It definitely varies by course.  There are a couple of more forgiving courses near me where I hardly ever lose a ball and those with lots of watery graveyards, but I'd guess that assuming average course difficulty I lose one a round.  The results, however, are more like 1/3 of the time 0 balls lost, 1/3 1 ball lost, 1/3 3 balls lost.  It's certainly not a steady state.

I tend to have around 6-9 balls in my bag at any time.  Unless it's a round I consider really important, I generally keep using those balls until I lose/scuff them.  When I get down to around 5-6 balls left, I open a sleeve.  No particular reasoning behind this, just the habits we fall into.  But that way when I run into one of those 3 lost ball rounds there's no fear of running out.

[DrMJG]

After my earlier comment, lost 2 today! One was a WAY out of bounds shot, one took a bath.  The golf gods are already seeking revenge for not making the preferred number of sacrifices!

 

[David Garcia]

I CAN GO THROUGH 3 TO 6 BALLS ON A ROUND, i will start with a sleeve, once its gone I go to the water balls.. Unless, I have a real good round, which usually means I lost two balls in one hole..

THATS JUST ME

[tehuti]

20 minutes ago, David Garcia said:

I CAN GO THROUGH 3 TO 6 BALLS ON A ROUND, i will start with a sleeve, once its gone I go to the water balls.. Unless, I have a real good round, which usually means I lost two balls in one hole..

THATS JUST ME

You sound like me. I played 9 yesterday and lost two balls, both on the same hole.

1 hour ago, DrMJG said:

After my earlier comment, lost 2 today! One was a WAY out of bounds shot, one took a bath.  The golf gods are already seeking revenge for not making the preferred number of sacrifices!

 

Yes the creek accepted my tribute.

[Buckeyebowman]

It all depends on how I'm hitting it that day. Had quite a few rounds last year where one ball was all I needed! Some days I came off the course with more balls than I started with! There is one course however, my nemesis, where the ball magnets in the woods seem to always be on! If I had to settle on an average, it would be 1 or 2. 

[rkim291968]

I play about 160 rounds and lose 2+ balls per round.   That means I go through about 320+ golf balls per year.   But I pick up enough balls per round to be self sufficient.   

[Pretzel]

I usually only lose a golf ball once every 2 or 3 rounds or so, but I end up damaging the golf balls bad enough (wedges and trees, mostly) that I usually only use it for 1 or 2 rounds at the most.

[Righty to Lefty]

When I haven't played in a while and am playing on a tough course I can easily run through a half dozen in a round but I usually don't play my gamer ball during this time because a piece of me dies when I lose one because I play the Wilson FG Tour X golf ball that isn't made anymore.  I do have 41 dozen of them but one day, a decade from now, they will run out.  When I am playing consistently I am in the range of one  or two per round due to lost ball or damage to the ball. Once a ball is damaged then it goes into my pouch to be used on hole number seven at my home course that has water from tee box to green on both sides of the fairway.  Whenever I see a deal on my preferred golf ball I don't hesitate to buy 10 dozen or more especially when I was getting the FG Tour X for $17.98 a dozen.  

[klineka]

13 hours ago, gbogey said:

The results, however, are more like 1/3 of the time 0 balls lost, 1/3 1 ball lost, 1/3 3 balls lost.  It's certainly not a steady state.

That sums it up perfectly for me and is pretty course dependent.

[gbogey]

On 11/27/2018 at 7:29 AM, klineka said:

That sums it up perfectly for me and is pretty course dependent.

Of course, when leaves are on the ground all norms go out the window.

[easyjay39402]

It depends. My vision isn’t so good these days because I have Glaucoma, and I’m also getting on in years. I live by a golf course and look for balls with my granddog most weekdays. We are limited only by our patience as to how many we find. We give away premium balls to golfers we meet along the way as I lack the swing speed to compress them.

When playing in a group, I seldom lose a ball, as most golfers track the balls of their partners, both out of courtesy and to speed up play.  And I’m careful to aim away from problematic hazards. For these rounds I play my preferred ball, a slow speed.

Playing by myself, I will lose about 6 balls per side, especially if I am walking, because I have to guess where the ball went. For these rounds, I use whatever comes out of the bag.