Divers wanted to find golf balls $100,000 year

[caver]

60,000 golf balls



I collected 60,000 balls all on SCUBA

 

[SteveC]

Man, you sure got balls

 

[SeanWilson]

Originally Posted by archman

Ha ha, show me one golf course on this planet where 3,000 golf balls per day are lost in ponds.

What's a more realistic number, 20-50?

How is it that so many just have no clue about golf-ball retrieval? Seriously, I think a lot of misconceptions exist and thus a lot of the nay-saying about the industry simply arise from people who don't know how it works...or how bad many golfers are. Firstly, divers don't dive the same pond day after day, nor the same course for weeks at a time or something like that. You can spend a week cleaning out all the ponds on a course, or--as many do--you dive a pond at one course, go hit another pond at another course...and come back to the other ponds later so that you end up working any given pond about 3 months apart during the season (however long that is for the region where the course is located).

It's rather like crop rotation, oil changes for your auto...scheduling anything...all very simple concepts.

It's not hard to pull a few thousand balls from a single pond. You can spend an entire day, sometimes two, on a single pond. Others, you can clean out in a few hours and move to another. Most ponds across the country, you can work every 3 months, some more often or less often. With courses having several water traps/ponds and there being many courses, it's not hard at all to pull 2-3000 balls or more a day. No one's talking about 3,000 balls per day being hit into the water...rather, that is how many divers retrieve during a day spent diving.

However, I can say that while popping up to reorient myself once and check my air gauge (was murky, water full of post-rain silt) before finning across a pond, in about four minutes I watched two groups of golfers drop five balls in the water. It's not uncommon to hear up to five balls hitting the water (and that's just those near enough for me to hear) on a single dive of 45 minutes-1 hour.

I would say that ponds' acquisition rates are faster than most golfers would ever care to admit.

 

[radulewicz]

i am a golf ball diver and it is vary possible to pull that amount my highest day was 9000 balls in one day of course the no one was in the pond for 2 years...i avarage about 2000 to 5000 aday.about 1800 per tank..on a good day. you only dive one course 1 time a year maby twice if it gets alot of play.but u have to wear an apron around your neck so it id vary dagerous i know of 9 people whome has already died..maby thats why the money is so good...

 

[Web Monkey]

i am a golf ball diver and it is vary possible to pull that amount my highest day was 9000 balls in one day of course the no one was in the pond for 2 years...i avarage about 2000 to 5000 aday.about 1800 per tank..on a good day. you only dive one course 1 time a year maby twice if it gets alot of play.but u have to wear an apron around your neck so it id vary dagerous i know of 9 people whome has already died..maby thats why the money is so good...

So why wouldn't this be Commercial Diving, and require all the normal surface support and safety divers?

Terry

 

[muddiver]

It is commercial diving and the divers doing this and promoting it are skirting the regulations, or so they think.

 

[Upstate Scuba OWI]

they are still in business just called and spoke with them.

 

[trayzouave]

Let me start off by saying that I did have a golf ball diving business for a short time. I had to give it up for health reasons. In my first 7 months I grossed over $35,000. The $100,000 per year that they are advertising is possible if you work hard, but it is not possible to make that in your first year. Remember I grossed $35,000 in 7 months. Don't forget the cost of doing business. You must be willing to travel from time to time. There is also a lot of scuba gear required, along with maintainance. At the end of my first year I had 11 tanks, 3 regulators, and I had bought and destroyed 1 drysuit and 2 wetsuits. As for the numbers, I averaged 3,000 balls per day. My personal record was 8,400 balls in one day and 2,000 balls in one hour. My worst day was 24 balls. I do know a diver who collected 24,000 balls in one day. Trust me that was not an 8 hour day. An eight hour day is a short day in the golf ball diving business. I averaged 12 to 14 hours a day working, but that was not all spent in the water. You are correct in saying that a golf course pond does not collect 3,00 balls in one day, but over a 1 to 12 month period a pond can see that many balls easily. You do not work the same pond every day. As for the travel, it depends on your region and how many contracts are available. I dove in 10 different states to make my money. If you are from a colder region, you will need to move south for the winter and part of fall and spring. If you are located in Florida or Arizona you will need to move north in the warmer months to keep your numbers as high as you want, because the snowbirds leave after Memorial Day. Trust me I spent 5 months in Arizona, I saw it first hand. Competition and weather are also a problem. After saying all of that. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved the work and have no regrets. Oh and by the way, I have been told by a reliable source that TPC Sawgrass averages 120,000 balls per year, if you are willing to do the work.

 

[mike_s]

Amazing... simply amazing.

not a post in 3 years... and you were automatically drawn to this thread! simply amazing....

 

[beautybelow]

that's a nice little silver mullet anyway.