Seeing An Opportunity

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I was meant to have a business meeting here today with a new client and was ushered away by security as the ANC government are having a 4 day conference here. Luckily around the corner was a golf club called The Lakes Golf Club for obvious reasons. Why anyone would purposely play where there is loads of water hazards is beyond me.

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Everywhere you look there is water and when I used to play no matter how much you keep it out of your mind the ball tends to find it. I know it is psychological, but why does it effect the best of us. If there was just grass there and not water it wouldn't be a problem and very few would hit that area. As soon as there is water and penalties it plays on our minds and it has a magnetic effect.

You start to realise how bad when you see some figures pulled by golf courses that recycle the golf balls and re sell them as lake balls. A majority of the balls are brand new and have only been hit once and still hold some value. The lake balls in the shops here come form the States and they aren't cheap. It is estimated that more than 200 million golf balls are hit into the water across the States each year. Golf ball manufacturers are not happy that there are recovery teams today as it hurts their sales.

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One ingenious entrepreneur who was an ex criminal started diving the lakes around Florida 15 years ago and selling the balls back to the driving range for $1 each. He earns anywhere between $1.5 million and $2 Million per year now and it is very lucrative. Alligators and snakes are his only concern, but worth the risk.

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One day diving at TPC Twin Cities and over 10 000 golf balls were recovered. What you see here was only 90 minutes of diving and close to 3000 balls. An average day he will pull around 6000 balls and his record was 21 300 in one day.

There is a company called Best Balls which pays a recovery fee to the golf course per ball. A dozen Pro V1's will set you back around $60 and they resell them for around $20. Just the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass will collect in the region of 120 000 balls per year. The player that plays at Sawgrass doesn't do it on the cheap and pays over $200 for the privilege. Most of the balls recovered here are in pristine condition and fetch a good value..The water is only about 4-5 ft deep so it isn't too hazardous except for snapping turtles. Besides golf balls they have found complete golf sets and loads of golf carts at the various water holes across Florida.