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While some have fun to launch them, others catch them… but, as finding it is not stolen, the business is profitable. Especially for those who catch 2 million golf balls per year.
He walked all over the east coast of the US to catch golf balls that fell into lakes. Its biggest gold mine is TPC Sawgrass – the place of Players Championship. Per year, it draws 70,000 balls from the Island Green area, where bouncings flee into the water body surrounding the site.
“I go there and earn money, as if I were harvesting, like in a field of corn,” says American Jim Best. You already know this place as well as the palm of your hand, especially the part that is not visible to others:
It all started in 1993, when he rode a bike and happened to picked up some lost balls in the forest, enough to fill his backpack. He washed them in a lava and sold them to a golf store.
“That’s how I fed! I thought, ‘My, I got dinner for the whole week in just a few hours! ”. After licensing, he took a diver course, and even celebrated Contracts with several golf fields to obtain the exclusive right to recover your balls.
At one point, he was working in 65 different golf courses, all over the east coast of the US. He got 2 million balls per yearto contribute to environmental cleaning and your wallet.
It takes with it oxygen deposits, and even if most balls are pierced and unusable, it can always catch a lot. It has gained sufficient experience to be able to distinguish the owner from the balls by his color and number.
Even found some iconic, such as those thrown by the famous player Tiger Woods. “It was an euphoria,” he recalls. And there is even one launched by the President Donald Trump.
And he even found other valuable artifacts: mobile phones, sunglasses and even golf clubs, some very expensive, released in “anger attacks” from the players, he says.
And faces dangers: “A few years ago, there was one 3 meters and one 3 meters around the Green where I was diving. I worked as I felt good and they remained a distance. ” But in a situation It was even bitten by one.
In 2007, at Innisrook Golf Resort, he looked at a 4 -meter alligatorwith the body out of water, which began to growl. The problem? He was diving with a friend, and had to get him out of there before he was attacked.
“The hardest thing I had to do was go back to the water and get my friend out of there. I hardly did it, but I thought, ‘I am a man seriously or I’m not.’
If you like to play golf, don’t forget to think where this ball will stop. A small shot at the man, a great dive to Jim Best.
