Getting your lake balls back

[Chico84]

I’ve just bought a few lake balls in my preferred ball, the yellow Bridgestone tour BRX. I’ve always assumed this to be a fairly uncommon ball choice given it’s yellow, it’s a Bridgestone ball and I don’t know anyone else who plays any type of Bridgestone ball and also because they are pretty rare to get as lake balls.

This got me thinking that it would be quite funny to get any of my previously lost balls back (there’s a reason I’m not buying these new anymore!).

Has anyone ever bought some lake balls only to find that they’ve actually got one of their own back with their ball marking in it?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I would think it is highly unlikely. They get many thousands in any year, just from those searching lakes in the UK but also a lot seem to be imported from the US. It would be funny though.

 

[trevor]

I played at a course while they were getting balls out from a fairly smallish lake and couldn’t believe how many there were. They were putting them in big nylon bags probably about 3feet high and must have had 20 ish bags. That’s a lot of balls from 1 lake. Chance of getting your ball back would be pretty slim.

 

[srixon 1]

I've been a member at my club for 32 years and must have lost a fair few balls by now. I have yet to find one of them that I've lost.

 

[jmf1488]

Depends who you get them off. There is a guy on Facebook who lives beside a golf course and he just picks the balls up that he finds on his land and sells them. I like to get the used balls in the winter as knocking 4£ down the fairway and never seeing it again is tiresome.

 

[jim8flog]

Not lake balls

I once went through a period of finding a lot of balls with AES on them, great finds as they were Srixon Z Stars which I played at the time. I now play with him on a regular basis. There now must be a lot of people finding ProV1s with AES on them.

 

[Orikoru]

While it's unlikely, it must have happened once. Some golf clubs sell the balls they dredge from the lake in their own pro shop, so much more likely then obviously.

 

[sunshine]

Lake balls no. But I've been looking for my ball in the bushes and found a ball I had lost the previous week in the same spot.

 

[sunshine]

There's a course in west London called Brent Valley where little chavs will nick your ball from the fairway and then try and sell it back to you a couple of holes later. Does this count?

 

[jim8flog]

Lake balls no. But I've been looking for my ball in the bushes and found a ball I had lost the previous week in the same spot.

I was playing in a comp at the weekend with the same guy as I played with on Thursday. On both days he put his ball in the same piece of long grass but could not find it on Thursday. When he found a ball on Saturday I did make the enquiry " are sure that is today's ball and not the one from Thursday"

 

[Golfnut1957]

Lake balls no. But I've been looking for my ball in the bushes and found a ball I had lost the previous week in the same spot.

On the one or two occasions that I've managed to do that it has given me a totally disproportionate sense of pleasure.

 

[Rlburnside]

Ou

While it's unlikely, it must have happened once. Some golf clubs sell the balls they dredge from the lake in their own pro shop, so much more likely then obviously.

Our 18th has a large loch which goes right to the green many balls are lost in there, every few weeks someone goes in with waders and collects them, we sell them for £1 and you can get some good balls as many use a new ball for competitions.

 

[Ross61]

I played in a randomly drawn foursome comp a couple of years ago. I got drawn with someone I didn’t know. I asked him what make of ball he wanted to play with. He produced a ball out of his bag which I immediately recognised as one of my lost balls.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Found one recently belonging to one of our low single figure guys. Pretty hard to deny it was his as it's got his name all over it. Surprisingly he wasn't overly pleased to be reunited in front of everybody on the patio on Captains Day (socially distancing of course) especially as I gave it to the captain to present

 

[Steviefella]

Bought some chopper pro v1 balls off eBay. Out of a dozen balls, 3 off them had Mick Owen stamped on in text.
Feels odd playing with another mans balls, felt cheap ?
If Mick reads this he can have em back.

 

[Fabia999]

Just finished a round and thought I had to share this.

I played on Saturday morning where my PP played a ball left onto the 6th fairway, we shouted and all was okay but we couldn't find that ball although it hit fairway. They had walked away so we couldn't ask, but we had suspicions that they had picked it up so we moved on, oh well.

Fast forward 3 days later I am playing the 17th and knock one into long grass, while looking I have found the exact ball he had lost 3 days earlier, 11 holes later (they picked it up on the 6th).

 

[Orikoru]

Just finished a round and thought I had to share this.

I played on Saturday morning where my PP played a ball left onto the 6th fairway, we shouted and all was okay but we couldn't find that ball although it hit fairway. They had walked away so we couldn't ask, but we had suspicions that they had picked it up so we moved on, oh well.

Fast forward 3 days later I am playing the 17th and knock one into long grass, while looking I have found the exact ball he had lost 3 days earlier, 11 holes later (they picked it up on the 6th).

Same thing happened to my mate once, but on a quicker scale. We were playing Bushey Hall, he sliced his drive on the 2nd, which as a short par 4 puts it near the 3rd tee. He swore he saw someone pick it up from a distance, but when we got there they'd moved on and sure enough he couldn't find it. Two holes later on the 4th, he was looking for his ball in the rough on the right hand side (again), and found his same ball with his markings there. They'd nicked it and lost it two holes later.

 

[Gowferdee]

I’ve just bought a few lake balls in my preferred ball, the yellow Bridgestone tour BRX. I’ve always assumed this to be a fairly uncommon ball choice given it’s yellow, it’s a Bridgestone ball and I don’t know anyone else who plays any type of Bridgestone ball and also because they are pretty rare to get as lake balls.

This got me thinking that it would be quite funny to get any of my previously lost balls back (there’s a reason I’m not buying these new anymore!).

Has anyone ever bought some lake balls only to find that they’ve actually got one of their own back with their ball marking in it?

i always use bridgestone e6 yellow now

 

[Crow]

I played in a randomly drawn foursome comp a couple of years ago. I got drawn with someone I didn’t know. I asked him what make of ball he wanted to play with. He produced a ball out of his bag which I immediately recognised as one of my lost balls.

Bet he'd just nicked it out your bag while your back was turned.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

One of my old scratch league partners was a really big hitter [small guy as well]
I could control his excesses in matches by telling him where to hit the ball [sometimes that was on the wrong fairway ]
On his own he could hit the odd ball miles off line, he hit everything with a massive low hook.
That in itself that was quite funny as I would split a fairway with a drive only for him to curse me for leaving him an impossible second shot.
Our opponents would look at him as if he was a dafty.
He learned his golf at Pitlochry where you play around the base of a mountain and have to hit most shots with a hook to keep the ball in play..

He bought three dozen Titelist's at a time with 'Osh It' printed on them.
He used to get a lot back and members used to take a great delight in wondering which hole he was playing at the time.