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an intervention for those overly addicted found ball collectors

rollin

rollin

"Just playin golf pally"
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Are you one of many addicted collectors of found balls. Ihave met a few in my life. Now and then you come across an individual that picks up everything and keeps it even if they don't play it. But on a couple or maybe few occasions Ive met those who take it a step further and are addicted and claim they have thousands of balls. Often a friend will vouch for it too and say how the person has a garage cabinets/draws/etc filled with them. Will walk along the edges of fairway every hole, every round looking for balls as they go about their golf. Create an enormous stock pile yet never play most of them, wont give them away, nor throw them away, nor really do anything with them but just have them.

Nothing bad of course here but just for kicks. Are you one of these addicted found ball collectors who may possibly need an unofficial intervention? Or perhaps you know of someone who is.
 
This used to be my thing in my teens, although I preferred fishing for them lol. Something exciting about finding pulling 100 golf balls out of the water in half an hour. Don't do it now though as I have the money to buy new balls and the skills to keep them!


My grandpa had a friend like this. He would stop over before his rounds and his friend would give him balls for free. Seemed like a cool thing the guy enjoyed doing for his friends

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I am not, but my dad was an avid collector. He had croaker sacks full of balls. It didn't matter in the least what the ball was, he kept it. He would bring them home then wash and sort them. Even after he could no long play he would still go out to the golf course a couple times of week just to look for golf balls. A few months before he passed he got rid of most of them and I bet he probably had a couple thousand.
 
My favorite was playing with a guy at We-ko-Pa that was clearly a retired Millionaire (he lived by Phil Mickelson's house up at Gray Hawk). Every hole, he was out looking for balls in the desert and always brought a club in case of rattlesnakes. He kept giving me crappy, desert balls that I didn't want - he clearly could afford new balls but loved the hunt.
 
nope, never keep them, either give them away or use them in later rounds/practice
 
I have a 5 gallon bucket at home of balls that I've found over the years. I only keep them for friends that only occasionally golf and don't want to go out and buy balls every time. I don't really have an obsession, but sometimes having a handful of junk balls around isn't the worst thing.
 
Not me, I leave them, even Pro-V's.

I used to collect and bring them to the range as a donation, but even that's not worth the effort anymore.
 
I used to pick up anything, but I have a whole box of crap balls now so I've stopped.

I will pick up a quality urethane ball if I find one though, because I'll use them.
 
Have a neighbor that plays a lot of morning weekday rounds by himself. He has a handful of spots on his course he hits every round and brings home a couple dozen each week. His kids buy him ProV1's for gifts year round so he doesn't need them or play them. He practices with the sometimes.

He did give my son a box of nearly 12 dozen of mid-grade, in good condition, when he started playing a few years ago. We thanked him with a 6 pack of Great Lakes...
 
I play with a couple of Seniors on a resort course, so there are balls everywhere.
They got someone to pay them $0.19 each for them.
They spend half of their time on the course looking for balls - Drives me nuts.
They give me the Truvis ones now otherwise, I don't use them.
 
When my parents lived in Sugarloaf, my dad would just walk around and collect the balls that had been hit into their yard. He didn't buy a golf ball for six years.
 
If it isn't something I play, that fits me, I just leave em now days. I had a couple of thousand at one point and finally gave them away.
 
I keep just a couple of dozen of the nicest found eggs for use with my hitting net and putting green. I don't play found balls as a general rule.

Growing up my grandparents had shag bags for practice that turned into a couple of filled laundry baskets. They all went to ta local range when it was time to unload them.
 
I'm not much of a collector these days. If I find something I know I'm not going to use I'll either give them away or use them as range balls in the future.
 
I think being a ball picker is a natural progression for many who take up the game. When I started playing my buddy would tell me I could take a stroke off for every ball found, that took the edge off the first 120+ rounds I played. Now days I don't pick up any unless it happens to be one of the two or three balls I prefer and it's glows bright. I no desire to hoard used balls and if I could find someone who would put them to good use I have a couple of buckets I could give away.
 
Never have picked balls up. I saw 4 yesterday and I just let them be since I am particular about my balls. And yes that did sound dirty.
 
I am not as bad as I used to be. I still have 3 5gallon buckets full of balls. I used to stop playing once hunting season started every year. We hunted on a 10,000 acre West Texas ranch and if I got bored, I would get a bucket that I kept in the back of my truck out and hit golf balls out into the brush. Was good practice to keep swinging during my "off season". Since I no longer hunt, I don't have much need to pick up balls unless they are good ones that I would use or my son would use. I have a buddy who hits balls out in his back yard towards the woods. If we are playing together, I give him the stuff I find.
 
I have a friend that has been collecting them for years and has garbage cans full of balls and has at least 100 egg cartons with sorted balls, he is not a golfer but lives on a course and picks them up when he walks his dogs on the edge of the course real early mornings and evenings. I asked what he was going to to do with them and he said sell them someday, he is 76 years old so I think he just likes the fun of finding them.
 
I don't necessarily go out of my way to search for balls, but I'll keep what I find. Some are good enough to play with, others go into a special pocket as 'scramble' balls. That way I can pull one out for tee shots, and don't have to look for it if it doesn't need to be played that hole. If I don't hit it in the fairway, I'll just drive where I think it is, look for a few seconds, then leave it if not found. That way I can swing away and don't have to worry about if I can find it.
 
I leave them lay. Found balls belong to the golf pixies; who exact revenge upon those who swipe their stuff.
 
wubears71 said:
My favorite was playing with a guy at We-ko-Pa that was clearly a retired Millionaire (he lived by Phil Mickelson's house up at Gray Hawk). Every hole, he was out looking for balls in the desert and always brought a club in case of rattlesnakes. He kept giving me crappy, desert balls that I didn't want - he clearly could afford new balls but loved the hunt.
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Oh the thrill of the Hunt!!!


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I pick up every golf ball I can find not to save or collect I hit on Georgia Power Company land next to mine my own personal driving range, I just do it with free balls!


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I don't think it's a problem, JK, none are me!
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rickkimbrell said:
I am not as bad as I used to be. I still have 3 5gallon buckets full of balls. I used to stop playing once hunting season started every year. We hunted on a 10,000 acre West Texas ranch and if I got bored, I would get a bucket that I kept in the back of my truck out and hit golf balls out into the brush. Was good practice to keep swinging during my "off season". Since I no longer hunt, I don't have much need to pick up balls unless they are good ones that I would use or my son would use. I have a buddy who hits balls out in his back yard towards the woods. If we are playing together, I give him the stuff I find.
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not to judge you or your friend :)
But wouldn't that be sort of polluting? I mean not toxic or anything of that nature of course ( at least I dont think so) but still its kind of like leaving garbage in places we shouldn't. Sorry if this sounds ridiculous :) but I wouldn't feel so good about having a place that I was collectively hitting who knows how many balls into to then just leave them there.
OK, now Im ready for backlash.:alien:
 
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