Back when I was a golf ball diver, I got a call about a lady who put her cart in the water. I called her back and arranged to work on the recovery in the morning (since I was scheduled to work that course). Unfortunately that particular lake bank, had a steep slope for like 3 feet, then a vertical wall cut into the rock for about 12-15 feet, an honest 90 degree drop.
She called me back later that evening and told me to "never mind" she got some "professional" divers to recover it.
So the next morning, I was working the course for an hour or two (diving other ponds) and curiosity got to me so I made my way to that particular pond. It was freaking awesome.
The divers had got a very large golf maintenance tractor with a chain and were trying to pull the cart out. The tractor had 6 foot diameter wheels and had dug a good foot into the golf course with spinning wheels. They had recovered two golf bags from the cart which were thrown on the bank, they had one guy in a wetsuit holding a yellow rope which was presumably tied to the other diver and they wear tearing the crap out of the course.
Visibility is normally less than 2 feet in this pond. The tractor was going back and forth dragging the chain back 4-5 feet, digging huge ruts and was making no headway. Clearly they had been at it for a while.
I approached the lady and she explained that she had contacted some professional dive instructors from the local dive shop to do the work. I explained to her that there was a vertical cliff underwater and that no amount of pulling was going to get the cart up the wall and over the crest. (of course the professionals probably expected a nice gradual lake bank, but they shoud have know better, once they located the cart).
I asked her if she wanted to pay me $100 or have her cart totally destroyed? She agreed and I went down to take a look. The clowns had taken a BC down and inflated it under the roof of the cart and they had like one 100 lb lift bag on it too. I don't know what a golf cart weighs but it is filled with lead batteries and a BC in the roof ain't gonna cut it!
I had brought no special gear because she told me I was "off the job" the night before. I got them to stop smashing it into the wall and sent the lady back to her house to bring me all her garbage cans. I snagged the crappy yellow rope the divers had been using for a tether, chopped it into several pieces, tied off a garbage can to each corner of the cart (in zero vis), inflated the plastic cans and the cart popped out in a few minutes with a quick pull on the chain.
Easier than picking up 1,200 balls @ $0.08, I guess.