Scuba Divers Are Sinking to New Lows for Golf Balls

Scuba Divers Are Sinking to New Lows for Golf Balls

Written by Randy B. Young / Illustration by Sarah Grove

“There’s gold in them thar ponds…”

Comments on the futility of the golf are myriad. Mark Twain dismissed the sport as, “a good walk ruined.” One variant penned in 1892, however, is particularly bleak: “Golf is a game the object of which is to put a very small and elusive ball into a tiny, obscure hole with tools ill-suited to the task.”

Any golfer who knows pleasures of golf is very familiar with the game’s hazards: sand traps and bunkers, bad lies, and forests. And then there are the water hazards; ponds, lakes and seas swallow up errant golf balls without practical hope of recovery. A shot into “the drink” can leave pros looking like amateurs and amateurs (who typically lose 5-6 balls a round) looking to the sky cursing.

As CNN Sports’ Don Riddle told YouTube’s “Great Big Story,” one golfer’s misery is another man’s gold. While it takes some skill (and scuba diving experience) to turn a profit, ponds can effectively be a gold mine for golf ball hunters from the Carolinas to Connecticut and from Ocala to Ann Arbor.

Golf Digest editor Scott Smith estimates on Scubadiving.com that about a billion new golf balls are produced yearly, of which 100 million eventually get scooped up and re-sold.

But the profit doesn’t come without peril. Divers scouring muddy ponds regularly face dangers like low visibility, entanglement, broken glass (or broken clubs) and territorial wildlife.

From ‘Splash’ to Cash

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has estimated that divers retrieve thousands of lost balls from U.S. golf course water hazards, often making a comfortable living. Indeed, Scuba.com estimates that golf ball retrieval in the U.S. is a $200 million industry.

“Although they got there accidentally, their location is no secret,” BLS’ Dennis Vilorio writes, “but to cash in, someone…needs to get them out. Divers typically meet with a course manager to negotiate whether a fee will be paid to the course in cash, in recovered golf balls or a combination.”

Having worked at the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and its infamous 17th hole island green, diver Gordon Davis tells the Great Big Story channel on YouTube that some courses even want to refashion the recovered balls. “Courses who want the balls go through and pick out some [for resale],” Davis says, “but then you even see some in repurposed as keepsake watches and bottle openers.”

BLS estimates that in the U.S., while some divers report six-figure earnings, most commonly earn between $25,000 to $60,000 each year.

One celebrated diver is Manny Silvia, who runs T-S Golf Ball Salvage, Inc., based in Taunton, Mass., who rescues around 1.2 million balls a year.

“I’ve dealt with so many [courses] across the country, they call me the godfather of the business,” Silvia says. “We work in Long Island, New York, New England…We worked at one Connecticut club last year that had nine ponds on the course.”

While legendary Florida golf ball diver Mike Gerstner doesn’t divulge his income, the Tampa Bay Times reports that it has paid for his Ferrari.

Mulligan Stew

As golf balls aren’t packaged with an expiration date, they are essentially “evergreen.” “Golf balls are waterproof, so they don’t get damaged underwater,” Vilorio writes. 

Jim Starr, who runs the GolfBallDivers.com business from Michigan, notes that the assertion was backed by science. “A university here in Michigan bought new golf balls which they put in the bottom of a campus pond for a year,” Starr states. “When they tested them, and the balls had lost only one to three yards over the entire year.”

Still, because few people want to buy muck-covered golf balls, the recovered balls are typically sorted, cleaned at either onsite or remote dedicated facilities.

Year-round golf in the South helped Florida’s Gerstner reap impressive numbers: “I’ve personally, with my own hands, recovered over 12 million balls.”

“We don’t buy golf balls from [divers], but there are courses in Connecticut that do,” explains Ron Scheyd, golf manager for TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. (home of the Travelers Championship, formerly the Greater Hartford Open), “but it’s pretty common for courses to enlist divers to come out once a year and sweep water hazards.”

(Un)clear and Present Danger

While profitable, diving into even the shallower ponds on golf courses is not for the faint of heart. Divers must be certified for unrestricted commercial scuba diving, Vilorio says. Factor in that divers are often sharing ponds with more than golf balls.

“Water hazards are usually murky, muddy, and weed or chemical-filled,” Scuba.com writes. “Alligators, snakes and snapping turtles are a frequent job hazard.”

“I have a picture of one of the divers that now works for me,” Silvia continues, “and he’s coming out of a [water hazard] in Florida where there’s a 14-foot [alligator] right behind him. But what we have near here [in New England] are snapping turtles, and they can get pretty big.”

“A turtle head feels just like a golf ball,” Gerstner tells the Tampa Bay Times, “but a turtle will take your finger off.”

But while wild animals pose a threat, another danger may be inanimate objects in ponds. Ponds are notoriously murky and are often littered with sharp glass and man-made pollution. These factors have taken the lives of several in the industry.

“Most ponds have pitch black water,” Gerstner tells Mabe, “so our hands are our eyes.”

“Even a fishing line could trap and drown divers,” Vilorio writes for the U.S. BLS.

In fact, so numerous are the dangers of golf ball diving, many consider alternatives, such as a roller.

“The roller…consists of [a drum] of metal discs on wheels,” Vilorio wrote, “which grasps balls as it’s dragged along a pond’s bottom. Using a roller is faster, but it’s less thorough than using divers.”

Having a Ball

Ask any diver, and he’ll tell you about the perils of diving in the same breath as the priceless finds.

“I’ve been doing it a long time,” Silvia tells. “I started when I was 8-years old on Long Island, where I found ‘#44 Reggie Jackson’ ball. I get all kinds, and I save those balls. I’ve pulled whole bags of clubs out of ponds — even golf carts. We did see an upside-down mannequin, and I thought somebody drowned. We haven’t found any bodies though, so that’s good.”

Diver Brett Parker told Scubadivingpartner.com that he has found the golf balls of Nick Price, Mark Calcavecchia and Fred Couples in Texas. Fellow diver Norm Spahn found a ball from (late) President Bush. Parker has also found two BMWs, two Cadillacs, more guns than he can count and so many golf clubs that he’s completed four sets of Pings.

Michigan’s Jim Starr said he witnessed one golfer succumb to the futility of the sport.

“I [was diving] when this guy got mad and threw his whole set of golf clubs into the pond,” Starr says, laughing. “I popped up from the water, and he asked ‘Hey, can you grab my set of golf clubs?’ After I dove for it, he grabbed his car keys and his wallet from the golf bag, handed me $100, but then threw the bag and clubs back into the pond. He was like, ‘I’m done with this game!”

How Dry I am

“The biggest challenge in golf is hitting it straight,” Gerstner says. “Very few people can hit it straight consistently, but that’s what keeps us in business.”

As golf balls continue to disappear into water hazards like so much rain, golf ball diving will surely thrive on players’ woes. For those looking to keep their golf balls dry, however, Davis has a suggestion: “Take up another sport.” 

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Randy B. Young worked in advertising in New England before relocating and working in communications for the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. N.C.  Recently retired, he is a freelance writer and photographer. Connect on Facebook and Instagram @randybyoungwriter.