Fore: Golf Balls in the Ocean

"Alex Weber takes a deep breath through her snorkel and dives to the bottom of Carmel Bay, a calm coastal cove several kilometers south of Monterey, California. Just meters away, atop the small cliffs that drop into the waves, golfers tread on the emerald greens of Pebble Beach Golf Links. It’s early December—the sky’s blue, the weather T-shirt warm. The golfers swing their way from hole to hole on the famed golf course. Unfortunately, their aim is rarely perfect. Weber surfaces 45 seconds later and drops nearly a dozen golf balls into a yellow mesh bag held open by her father, Mike, who is also in a wetsuit and snorkeling gear. The pair have been in the water for several hours and have collected more than 1,500 golf balls—the fallout of a sport that has unseen, and probably significant, consequences for the ocean."--Hakai Magazine 

As I read this introduction to this article, I recalled diving off of Isla Vista near Santa Barbara and finding a number of golf balls over the years--most of which had painted stripes which marked them as balls that had been reclaimed from water hazards at golf courses and used at driving ranges.  At first I thought they might be from the nearby Sandpiper Golf Course (which sits atop the old Ellwood Oil Field) and moved down the coast by the littoral transport of sand.  But, there were too many and as I recall, Sandpiper did not have a driving range.  As a kid, I had purchased marked golf balls to save money as I sliced and hooked my way through the local par 3 pitch-putt course.  As sport I gave up, by my teenage years.  One of my dive buddies who lived in Isla Vista surmised it was a more local source--student residents of the bluff top apartments using their decks as the tee box for an oceanic driving range.


Finding them while diving nearby Goleta Beach, I figured they might be left over from years used as props in the annual Underwater Easter Egg hunt that the UCSB Scuba Club held there for many years.  In the 1980s, the hunt was a popular event with all the local dive shops donating great prizes.  The presence of golf balls might be fitting as the bottom of Goleta Beach is like a perpetual sand trap, except for the organisms that grow on the sewage treatment plant ocean outflow pipeline that runs perpendicular to the beach, just to the west of the pier.  I guess they would not do that anymore given the attention that plastics in the ocean now receives.

I read today's story in the on-lime Hakai Magazine with great interest.  I  never really thought of the golf balls as a source of plastics in the ocean.  Over the years, I have read stories about divers who make money recovering balls from water hazards on golf course all over the country.  People make a living doing this recovery, sometimes with potential for occupational injury  I guess that is one way to make money on scuba.

As the Hakai article continues, it features the campaign of Alaskan Rick Steiner to close down the attraction of a Fairbanks hotel-restaurant, Pikes Landing, where guests are invited to drive golf balls across the Chena River.  Full disclosure, when I stayed at Pikes Landing while swimming a 5-K race at Chena Lakes five or six years ago, I did try my luck with the driver and a few balls and probably splashed a few.  Next time I run into Rick, which is a couple of times a year, Alaska is a small place, I guess I will have to offer to take a two-stroke penalty for doing so of he may insist that I play it where it lies.  That would add a whole new dimension to the concept of a water hazard.