Anyone Golf Ball hunt?

Anyone here golf ball hunt? what are some of your tips or secrets that you wouldn't mind sharing!

I love to hunt for golf balls any chance i get. I never do it when there are people waiting haha, i only do it while waiting for a green to clear or while on tee box. My favorite spots are right off the side of a tee box.. you wouldn't believe the hackers on the blue tees who dribble them 10 yards and don't pickem up!.. since i play from white tees, all i do is peak on each side of whites and WOW; i will at least find a couple on each side! And another place i love to check is simply off the fairways, lateral areas, ice plant(great ball swallower!!) and also the rough/ bushes behind greens are always loaded!!! Best of all, I traded 100 prov''s i found in about 3 months for a Krank Rage 5* LD driver that is over $100 plus a $300 shaft!!!

Let me know where you like checkin for balls!

Also, do courses ever let you just go out and search around through their lateral and hazard ares for balls if you ask? or is it a no usually? thanks

No.

[quote name='Arpeggi' timestamp='1413756240' post='10315975']
No.
[/quote]

Thanks for sharing.

I've never really looked while I was playing, but there is a pond at the course I grew up on that is only about 5.5 feet at its deepest point. Every summer we go in and feel them out with our feet and stock up the shag bags. You actually get some decent balls out still. Actually pretty fun.

This is how I look for balls. Hit my ball in the woods,tall weeds etc. Find a 1/2 dozen balls looking for mine but never find my ball.
One thing for sure is when ever I lose a ball and go looking for it I see that I am not the first person to lose one in that location.
I lost one today in the middle of the fairway in the leaves. I found two in the fairway looking for mine but not mine. Sometimes the trade is good sometimes it is not. Lost a NXT Tour and found two Top Flites. I felt cheated today..LOL

All the time, I play alot when no one is around and my course is a golf ball eater with all the native and wooded areas. A good friend showed me a few honey holes and I have found a few more. It is not uncommon for me to find 2 dozen balls or more during one round.

If I'm playing alone and not holding anyone up, I will look for balls. Wintertime golf when walking is when I find most of the balls. I've built up a large number of shag balls that I'll hit at my house. Have found MANY ProV's in excellent condition as well as other tour caliber balls.

There's a par 3 near me that has "bottomless" range buckets, and has the 9th hole running beside the range so lots of regular balls end up on the range. One guy was cherry-picking all of the non-range balls out as he hit a his range buckets. He had set aside at least a dozen non-range balls that I assume he kept. He was practicing 30-50 yd chips, so he could probably hit multiple buckets without breaking a sweat.

I'm sure the course wouldn't approve, but it didn't look like it was his first time doing it.

Not much use for it around here. Many courses have "professional" ball hunters. AKA people who spend their days in the ponds and woods looking for balls and then sell them at the snack shacks around the course. Not quite sure if they are employed by the course or not. I actually nearly hit one in the head when I failed to make a forced carry over a pond. Welcome to Thailand

I carry a telescoping ball retriever in my bag can usually grab a few out of the water hazards. While walking to my ball I will walk in the short rough and I usually find 1 to 3 each round that way and I don't slow down play.

A friend of mine donates balls to a nine hole course in RI. The owner gives the balls to under privileged kids. After I play 18, I will go look for golf ball. I have probably given my friend about 900 this year. Yes, I keep some for myself. But, I enjoy looking for the golf balls, cleaning them up and knowing they will find a good home. :-)

Yep, I hunt. It is a "pack-rat" type of instictually mentality, however. I never play them. I have a couple of five gallon buckets at home that someday will be donated (I keep saying that year after year).

I only play my preferred yellow ball so give away the found balls to playing partners or kids on the course. I just can't force myself to leave them on the next tee for strangers for some reason.

The feeling is similar to finding an Easter egg. I guess therapy is needed.

I just walk/ride along tree line or hazard line and will find a handful of balls every round. If they are similar to what I've played I'll put them in the bag. The rest are shag bag balls for when I play with a hacker buddy.

My grandad has boxes of found gems in his garage. No idea why he keeps all of them but he does and lets whoever root through them for free. He plays at least 2-3 times a week so he's amassed quite a collection the last 20+ years of retirement.

My mother in law lives next to a golf course and loves to find balls for me whenever me and the wife come visit. I don't know why but she gets the biggest kick out of finding them.

I used to when I was a 14 yr old kid

Now I only find balls when looking for mine in the woods and like Greenie said, I often find 8-10 in 3 minutes. Our course is lateral down both sides

I give some of the nice ones to my wife and daughters and the balance go to the backshop kids

I've had two of my custom #'d balls come back to me in the last 24 months by other members .. good for a laugh

Growing up a friend's Dad collected logo'd balls and would go to the course when not playing to hunt for them. I think he had 5,000 or so when he quit. We'd blast the non-logo'd balls out into the lake at his cottage and the kids would snorkel for them

I rarely find a ball worth keeping and playing, but I'll throw it in the bag when I do.

I found 74 today.

I used to look a lot more before I got poison ivy this summer all over my damn legs from hunting for my own ball in the woods. A few faded Pinnacles and a Noodle that the mowers got to first isn't worth it!

My new rule is that if there isn't a trail and I can't reach it with a club, it's gone.

[quote name='Sean2' timestamp='1413857603' post='10323215']
I found 74 today.
[/quote]

I don't think hunting on the driving range counts. How did you carry them? Jeesh, that's a lot of balls.

I find quite a few if there is rough between the tee box and fairway. Seems many people squib one off the tee and then can't find it. Since I always walk, I walk right over them.

Only if nobody else is out on the course. Some guy was walking the course I played last week with his backpack on, hunting and selling golf balls. He was weird

I do all the time. A casual round played in under 4 hours with lots of scooping will usually yield about 50 balls and 10 ProV's. Consequently, I never have to buy balls or rent range balls. I just bang the non-ProV's back on the range. I carry a 24 ice-cream cone scoop and heartily recommend it. The Gotcha snapping head is better, but the poles aren't long enough. The 24 footer is essential because I get the ones that are just out of reach for the other guys.

Some of my tricks are play on Sunday afternoons and just after high school and college tournaments. That way you get the fresh weekends worth. Spend more time in the areas of the typical miss. If you search at 210 off the right side of the tees, welcome to Top-Flite, Pinnacle, and Mojo land! 270 to the left of the tee is where the ProV's hide.

[quote name='dmblanch' timestamp='1413905905' post='10325863']

Some of my tricks are play on Sunday afternoons and just after high school and college tournaments. That way you get the fresh weekends worth. Spend more time in the areas of the typical miss. If you search at 210 off the right side of the tees, welcome to Top-Flite, Pinnacle, and Mojo land! 270 to the left of the tee is where the ProV's hide.
[/quote]

Or search at a resort course. We stay at a resort with a nice course every couple years, and my boys love to get up at 5:30 and go out on the course to find balls. I'm amazed by the number of ProVs. They outnumber any other ball at least 3:1. And the others are almost always tour balls as well.

At my home course if I find one, it seems like it's a Top Flite (and not a Gamer) or a Pinnacle 3 times out of 4.

I have a box that I put the Pro V1's that I find in. There is at least 10 dozen in there and another 5 dozen premium balls of various brands in another box just from the last 6 months. Found 2 dozen Pro V1/X in a field 3 weeks ago.

Top 2 balls I find are Pro V1 and DT Solo. I'll find 10 Pro V1's for every Pro V1x.

[quote name='PZero' timestamp='1413941084' post='10329741']
I have a box that I put the Pro V1's that I find in. There is at least 10 dozen in there and another 5 dozen premium balls of various brands in another box just from the last 6 months. Found 2 dozen Pro V1/X in a field 3 weeks ago.

Top 2 balls I find are Pro V1 and DT Solo. I'll find 10 Pro V1's for every Pro V1x.
[/quote]


same, i have a box of prov's and i throw them in there, when it is full i trade it for a new club!

[quote name='jcorna01' timestamp='1413857807' post='10323237']
I used to look a lot more before[b] I got poison ivy[/b] this summer all over my damn legs from hunting for my own ball in the woods. A few faded Pinnacles and a Noodle that the mowers got to first isn't worth it!

My new rule is that if there isn't a trail and I can't reach it with a club, it's gone.
[/quote]

I got poison ivy as a kid real bad. Since then it doesn't seem to bother me. When I see poison ivy on the golf course I jump right in and pick me a small bucket of balls.

There's a couple honey holes at Charleston National that me and my buddy used to dip into quite a bit.

We would drive up there, park, and walk along the marsh with a rubbermaid container full of bags and a flashlight. One of us would hold the bag and the light while the other waded into the marsh and grabbed as much as we could.

We easily got 120# worth of balls everytime we went out there. Once we got back to the apartment we would fill the container with simple green and hot water. We'd let them soak/catch a buzz and dump the dirty water into the tub before we grabbed rags and wiped them off while watching golf and killing a case of natty light.

I don't think we paid for a single ball that whole that semester haha. I miss those days

Great thread OP!!

Went looking one day for my ball that went into a dried up dam and saw all these balls just sitting there like low hanging fruit. A few steps in my foot just sunk into the mud up to my ankle. Felt very silly...so my answer is no.

I sure do! There's a few spots, like all courses, that I hunt around. I've found many very nice balls that I give to my better handicap friends. I hit a Pro V1 the same that I hit a Top Flight XL, so it doesn't bother me.

I never have before, but the cheap used balls I've bought at Academy for my shag bag have been so lousy lately, I've considered it.

I play 90% of my golf on out-of-the-way courses with very little traffic, so I could probably find a bunch in the rough if I actually tried.

[quote name='Sean2' timestamp='1413857603' post='10323215']
I found 74 today.
[/quote]

74 is a lot! My record is 68 in one round.

[quote name='PZero' timestamp='1413941084' post='10329741']
I have a box that I put the Pro V1's that I find in. There is at least 10 dozen in there and another 5 dozen premium balls of various brands in another box just from the last 6 months. Found 2 dozen Pro V1/X in a field 3 weeks ago.

Top 2 balls I find are Pro V1 and DT Solo. I'll find 10 Pro V1's for every Pro V1x.
[/quote]

ProV1/V1x and Top Flite are the 2 balls I find the most. I have 3 dozen ProVs that are like new that I need to do something with. Probably have several hundred other ProVs in less than new condition in my golf ball crates in the garage. If there's a certain ball that my buds like, I pull those out and give them to them. The rest are for hitting into the empty field across the road.

[quote name='nuthin but a hacker' timestamp='1414003439' post='10333873']
If there's a certain ball that my buds like, I pull those out and give them to them.
[/quote]

Same. I give all the Callaway balls (except Diablo Tour) to my brother in law and any non Titleist balls go to my 2 younger cousins.

Here is my stash box. Left side is Pro V1/X and the the smaller box on the right has NXT, NXT Tour, and some other nice balls.

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