Diving for golf balls

[DavidPT40]

Does anyone here dive for golf balls in the local golf courses? I watched a show about a diver in Florida who has a big business diving for golf balls. He gathers them, refurbishes them, and sells them. Seems like a neat job.

 

[Land Locked]

Does anyone here dive for golf balls in the local golf courses? I watched a show about a diver in Florida who has a big business diving for golf balls. He gathers them, refurbishes them, and sells them. Seems like a neat job.

Some of those ponds are pretty mucky and stinking. But I guess there
is good and bad in every job. My dive instructor dove the Atocha for a
couple years with Mel Fisher. He said that was a pretty tedious grind at
times.

 

[mike_s]

Does anyone here dive for golf balls in the local golf courses? I watched a show about a diver in Florida who has a big business diving for golf balls. He gathers them, refurbishes them, and sells them. Seems like a neat job.

The idea might seem neat, but I bet it'll wear off very quickly.

You're talking about diving in murky ponds and having to "compete" in that pond with snakes, snapping turtles and maybe the ocassional alligator.

Not to mention the "cess" of bacteria in stagment ponds.


But if you are wanting to try it, some shop I think in Ohio actually teaches a PADI Golf Ball Diver speciality course. See http://www.mds-scuba.com/edu/golfball.htm

 

[Corigan]

There was a gentleman who died locally to me in the past 2 years that died diving for golfballs in a lake with noviz. The problem was due to using a homemade hookah system. Those ponds are definately nasty.

Funny there is a specialty. People will write a speciality for anything it seems.

My landscaping company does a good amount of buisness on golf courses. All the clients let me collect the balls from their backyards and keep them. I have a huge collection of golf balls that I give out to my golfing friends as gifts. Sometimes I will find nice $10 balls without a single ding on em.

Matt

 

[Land Locked]

But if you are wanting to try it, some shop I think in Ohio actually teaches a PADI Golf Ball Diver speciality course. See http://www.mds-scuba.com/edu/golfball.htm

LoL, $100.00 plus materials. I guess that means you have to supply your own balls...
I don't see that specialty in my PADI manual, I guess it would fall between the
underwater hunter and underwater naturalist specialties, or maybe it is a branch
of the search and recovery diver.

 

[busraider1]

I used to snorkel for golf balls, in high school during the summer, at 10- 25 cents per, depending on make/condition a few hours could net someone a significant amount of money. On a good, day 400-500 golf balls could be found.... ALL THE WEEKEND HACKERS, made for a decent summer job. Unfortantely most golf courses you need to have an "IN", or you have to offer to sell back for practice balls, at a even larger diso****ed price. Another problem would involve most ponds you can only hit up once a year, maybe twice....Word to the wise stay away from the stagnant ponds, or at least wait until mid summer when the pond dries up.... Nicer courses, with filtration systems, or constant running water, are much better.... Not a "career" job, but for some extra cash for a high school, or college student, it defenitely has perks, of being able to scuba dive, snorkel... and make some money... OOOO those were the days...

 

[mike_s]

btw..... I forgot to add that I found a golf ball on the Destin Jetties on saturday. I think it's still in my BC pocket. Heh.

 

[Land Locked]

btw..... I forgot to add that I found a golf ball on the Destin Jetties on saturday. I think it's still in my BC pocket. Heh.

So was it a 7 iron or a drivers length from shore? It never fails, my golf balls
always find water, even if it is 2 fairways over. But I'll still use my extending ball retriever rather than go into the muck!

 

[scubamate]

Don't forget about all the chemicals that run off the greenery into the ponds, too.

 

[Tobagoman]

Don't forget about all the chemicals that run off the greenery into the ponds, too.

Actually, if the golf course is run correctly with a riparian buffer zone, the amount of contaminants from the course getting into the retention ponds is very minimal. That was one of the studies I conducted when I was in grad school and the impact on the water systems from the courses where negligable.