Golf Ball Hunting

[hitmanharleyk]

Hey THP. This weekend me and my dad went out to a local course where he used to be a member, and because of the absence of snow in Southern Ontario this winter, the water was extremely low. Over the course of 3 days we were able to pull around 1300 golf balls (we think) from hazards. The course was empty, and we plan on selling these to pay for a few rounds this summer. Anybody else do this? I'll post pics up when we get them all cleaned up.

I asked a lawyer friend who would know the proper answer to this and he said.

1. Did you have the courses permission?

2. If not you are guilty of trespassing since neither of you are members of the course and it was closed (???).

3. You are also guilty of theft by taking items from the property that wasn't yours.

4. When you sell them, you are also involving that person(s) as they are receiving stolen property.

If you had permission from the course, none of the above applies and it is all good. Maybe you could donate them back to the course for Jr Golf or something.

 

[JesseO]

I asked a lawyer friend who would know the proper answer to this and he said.

1. Did you have the courses permission?

2. If not you are guilty of trespassing since neither of you are members of the course and it was closed (???).

3. You are also guilty of theft by taking items from the property that wasn't yours.

4. When you sell them, you are also involving that person(s) as they are receiving stolen property.

If you had permission from the course, none of the above applies and it is all good. Maybe you could donate them back to the course for Jr Golf or something.

Ouch that would suck


Tappin!

 

[Golf Ghost]

I worked at a private course for 2 Summers, unfortunately, this summer I may have to move onto a high paying job. Anyways, I know we hired a guy to collect the balls every morning. Paid him $100 a week for an hour or two of his time very morning. The guy was retired and he enjoyed just getting out for the walk more than anything. All the balls were donated to the Special Olympics.

Have had problems with people walking on and trying to gather balls from the ponds on the property. We would just ask them to leave and what ever they had found before that they were able to keep. Once we did have to call the cops for a guy who continuously returned after being asked to leave on 3+ different occasions. No chargers were put in place, but he now has a a final warning and next time both trust passing and theft charges are being laid.

 

[bahester]

Have fun with that. You won't find me at the bottom of a pond looking for balls. If there were fifths of bourbon down there, I'd be all over it. Golf balls? Nah.

 

[Sprinta]

A couple things. Hitman, where is your lawyer fiend located? You're in GA, so assuming nearby to you. Our 'perp' is in Canada.
Could be similar laws, but perhaps not.

Also, as was asked about the effect of a golf ball being submerged in water for any significant period of time.

According to the Global Forum for Sports and Environment, water does damage golf
balls!

"...So is a ball inferior, if it has been submerged in a body of
water? 'Yes' says an U.S. Army Research Laboratory study. Golf balls
absorb water that cannot be removed and this affects a permanent
change. Testing by Golf Digest in 1996 found a golf ball submerged in
water loses six yards after one week, 12 yards after three months and
15 yards after six months."

It's an old study but has ball cover permeability changed that much in the past 15 years? I wouldn't bother testing it myself.
I assume if effected, they would also be more easily hit out of round before long.

 

[putterzz]

as far as water effects...it is very minimal, I knowingly buy balls from lostgolfballs that have been collected from ponds, I have compared them with newly bought balls and could never tell the difference.

 

[Golf Ghost]

A couple things. Hitman, where is your lawyer fiend located? You're in GA, so assuming nearby to you. Our 'perp' is in Canada.
Could be similar laws, but perhaps not.

Also, as was asked about the effect of a golf ball being submerged in water for any significant period of time.

According to the Global Forum for Sports and Environment, water does damage golf
balls!

"...So is a ball inferior, if it has been submerged in a body of
water? 'Yes' says an U.S. Army Research Laboratory study. Golf balls
absorb water that cannot be removed and this affects a permanent
change. Testing by Golf Digest in 1996 found a golf ball submerged in
water loses six yards after one week, 12 yards after three months and
15 yards after six months."

It's an old study but has ball cover permeability changed that much in the past 15 years? I wouldn't bother testing it myself.
I assume if effected, they would also be more easily hit out of round before long.

That's actually an awesome thing to know and I'm glad to say I'm looking forward to now bragging about this if I get the chance.

 

[fairband]

We got a group of guys to do this when we were 15 or 16 and went in the pond at the public course right by our houses, I think we got 6/7 five gallon pails full that we played for years before we lost them all. There were definitely too many critters in the water to do it again, leechs and what not. Now I'm too much of a ball snob to search much, the balls I find go to the junior program.

 

[hitmanharleyk]

According to the Global Forum for Sports and Environment, water does damage golf
balls!

"...So is a ball inferior, if it has been submerged in a body of
water? 'Yes' says an U.S. Army Research Laboratory study. Golf balls
absorb water that cannot be removed and this affects a permanent
change. Testing by Golf Digest in 1996 found a golf ball submerged in
water loses six yards after one week, 12 yards after three months and
15 yards after six months."

It's an old study but has ball cover permeability changed that much in the past 15 years? I wouldn't bother testing it myself.
I assume if effected, they would also be more easily hit out of round before long.

I have nothing to back up my thoughts, but I'd be surprised if water affected todays balls like it did the ones back in 1996. Did they say if all balls were affected the same or were the Premium balls hurt worse than the Top-Rocks?

 

[MattyGazoo1]

Normally I would not ask, but I curiosity is getting the best of me. Do you guys speak to the Country Club or Golf Course and get permission before doing this?

My dad has gotten permission from the head green keeper, as they used to be good friends.

 

[BigCountryStein]

Well congrats to you because you just payed for a bunch of rounds haha, good information in this thread though, learned a lot.

 

[roswellj]

Don't think I'd ever go out looking for balls, seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. Normally When I find a ball, unless I'm desperate for one or want to just see how far I can smash the next drive, I'll pop it down somewhere where someone will find it. I normally just chuck them on the ground at the next tee box. I like to think that maybe someone less well off or who can't afford a premium ball will find it and put it to good use. It's the same reason that I don't spend much time looking for my own lost balls. Hopefully they'll be able to put my Penta to good use as I obviously couldn't.
I'm in an area and at a club where there are all kinds of backgrounds and lots of the members aren't very well off. That plus I'm a ball ho and have boxes of various dozens sitting at home unopened means that I really have no use for balls found on the course.

 

[JF]

Don't think I'd ever go out looking for balls, seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. Normally When I find a ball, unless I'm desperate for one or want to just see how far I can smash the next drive, I'll pop it down somewhere where someone will find it. I normally just chuck them on the ground at the next tee box. I like to think that maybe someone less well off or who can't afford a premium ball will find it and put it to good use. It's the same reason that I don't spend much time looking for my own lost balls. Hopefully they'll be able to put my Penta to good use as I obviously couldn't.
I'm in an area and at a club where there are all kinds of backgrounds and lots of the members aren't very well off. That plus I'm a ball ho and have boxes of various dozens sitting at home unopened means that I really have no use for balls found on the course.

That's a great thing to do... I just might start doing that a little...

 

[GolferMahn]

I dont see anything wrong with going out and finding balls. That being said, there's a difference between 5 minutes back in the woods, when you're not holding someone up, and diving in the water. I wish I could have spent a few minutes walking the shore at a golf course at Myrtle Beach, you could look in the shallows and find 30-40 easy.

 

[Bullfrog]

If I'm behind some slow people and have to wait. If there is a pond or creek, I will grab my retriever and get some balls. I don't sell them tho. I add them to my bucket of "Junk" balls. My "Junk" balls are the ones that I just hit into the field behind my house and just forget about them. So that's the reason I will grab some balls with my retriever if I'm at a standstill on the course.

 

[Golf Ghost]

Don't think I'd ever go out looking for balls, seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. Normally When I find a ball, unless I'm desperate for one or want to just see how far I can smash the next drive, I'll pop it down somewhere where someone will find it. I normally just chuck them on the ground at the next tee box. I like to think that maybe someone less well off or who can't afford a premium ball will find it and put it to good use. It's the same reason that I don't spend much time looking for my own lost balls. Hopefully they'll be able to put my Penta to good use as I obviously couldn't.
I'm in an area and at a club where there are all kinds of backgrounds and lots of the members aren't very well off. That plus I'm a ball ho and have boxes of various dozens sitting at home unopened means that I really have no use for balls found on the course.

That's really awesome of you.

 

[Centre]

Don't think I'd ever go out looking for balls, seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. Normally When I find a ball, unless I'm desperate for one or want to just see how far I can smash the next drive, I'll pop it down somewhere where someone will find it. I normally just chuck them on the ground at the next tee box. I like to think that maybe someone less well off or who can't afford a premium ball will find it and put it to good use. It's the same reason that I don't spend much time looking for my own lost balls. Hopefully they'll be able to put my Penta to good use as I obviously couldn't.
I'm in an area and at a club where there are all kinds of backgrounds and lots of the members aren't very well off. That plus I'm a ball ho and have boxes of various dozens sitting at home unopened means that I really have no use for balls found on the course.

Very cool roswell.

 

[Golfnut59]

Great job on collecting the balls. There was some local driver that came in to our course and clean out two lake. They found over 5000 balls in a three days. They took the balls to the Boyscout and Girl scout. They sold them and paid for a trip to Washington DC.

 

[Perkins Rooster]

I have so many other things in life I'd rather do than hunt golf balls. I only play Bridgestone's.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[roswellj]

Great job on collecting the balls. There was some local driver that came in to our course and clean out two lake. They found over 5000 balls in a three days. They took the balls to the Boyscout and Girl scout. They sold them and paid for a trip to Washington DC.

That's really cool. If something like that happened at my course I wouldn't be so annoyed when I hit a brand new penta into the drink.

 

[Perkins Rooster]

My dad has gotten permission from the head green keeper, as they used to be good friends.

LOL. You sure stirred things up for nothing!

 

[Chunkylover77]

I'm going to retrieve golf balls from bullfrog's place

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[mayday1775]

I will pick up and good ones that are close if I am looking for mine, and throw them in my "water hazard" pouch. I don't like loosing my good ones so when the holes come up that I know I have a tendency to drop one in the water I use the found balls.

 

[knox co mike]

On my home course, I will check the "fencelines" and other trouble areas scouting balls if I have no one behind me and I am not in a hurry. I wouldn't ever do this if I was in jeopardy of holding-up play. Unless I find good balls they go into my shag buckets.

I don't suggest anyone go out and break the law, but in 13 years of being in law enforcement I have never responded to a golfball theft call. Our command and telecommunicators understand that we frankly don't have that kind of spare time on our hands. KCM

 

[Smallville]

I will pick up and good ones that are close if I am looking for mine, and throw them in my "water hazard" pouch. I don't like loosing my good ones so when the holes come up that I know I have a tendency to drop one in the water I use the found balls.

I never do that. I used to, a long time ago, but that's like admitting defeat before you even hit.