Golf ball divers

[SkipperJohn]

There's a course by me that neighbors salt water canals. A friend of mine use to dive and sometimes drag a net on the bottom of these canals. He made a few bucks. (man, there must be a lot of crappy golfers out there).

 

[JDMerk]

Not SCUBA...more skin diving/wading but it gives you a graphic depiction of the environment...and hazards

Dirty Jobs: Golfball Diver : Discovery Channel

 

[ssidiv3r]

I've retrieved about 800 golf balls from a lake up in Maine. The folks have a cabin up there, and a cabin on an island. The folks a couple houses down the street (dirt path, actually) constantly wack golfballs out trying to hit the island. I snorkle back-and forth between the shore and our island picking them up, and they are by no means clustered. The most I ever collected in one day was around 183.

 

[chtinaz74]

I have been doing this part time in AZ for about 3 months. Not bad for a part time job if you can get used to zero viz and mucky water. I first startred getting 150-300 balls which at six cents a ball, sucks. But I recently dove a course and got 2500 in about 3.5 hours, and I am averaging about 1500 so its a perfect part time job for me and looking forward to the spring/summer so I can shed my 7mil

 

[underwaterjon]

Be very careful about doing this and no matter what make sure you have a dive knife (or knives) on hand. Quite a few years back (probably around 10-15 years) a diver died in BC after getting tangled in a net that a golf course had laid down in a pond. I don't know how common of a practice it is for a golf course to do it but apparently this course was using the net to catch golf balls. Every so often the course would haul in the net like they were hauling in fish.

Rather than dive, as a teenager I used to wade through golf course ponds. The money was great for a kid and my dad loved the fact that he never had to buy a golf ball again. However, I'd have to say that getting leeches and being coated head to toe in smelly mud is no longer all that fun.

 

[er1n99]

I have no experience in golf ball retrieval, however I do have experience in doing math. If those guys with the roller came up with 14,000 balls...at 5 cents apiece...that's only $700. Even 150 balls is only $75. Shoot, you can't even replace the damage that it sounds like it does to your gear for $75...even on eBay.

 

[oreocookie]

I have no experience in golf ball retrieval, however I do have experience in doing math. If those guys with the roller came up with 14,000 balls...at 5 cents apiece...that's only $700. Even 150 balls is only $75. Shoot, you can't even replace the damage that it sounds like it does to your gear for $75...even on eBay.

actually, 150 balls will only get you $7.50, which definitely won't get you far. If you can get good at it (and get more balls than Mike Rowe did on Dirty Jobs), it might be worth it, or if you're a kid looking for a bit of money, but otherwise you're pretty much jumping into muck for nothing.

 

[GolfDiver]

I am a golf ball diver a few years in, here are some tips:

Water is usually pitch black or vis less than a foot or two and retrieving is done by feel 70-80 percent of the time. prepare to dive with no fins and plenty of wieght (i use 25 to 30lbs), you'll want to be pinned to the bottom. Pay is usually 5-8 cents per ball, and at the higher end of the pay scale, you will probably be contending with snakes, alligators and snapping turtles, but mostly alligators.

Hope that helps.

-GolfDiver

 

[GolfDiver]

5 cents a ball is diver pay, the balls are worth more.

 

[senseiern]

I imagine it would be dangerous doing this solo, but like everyone has said there is no viz, so even if a problem arises it's probably not likely you'll be finding your buddy. Would it be any worse diving these solo rather than with a buddy?

I would have the buddy stay on the surface so if you don't come up at the expected time, he can take action. I think the scariest thing I could imagine is to dive in silt, looking for golf balls and find a diver who was diving alone a year ago.