Fishing for golf balls allowed?
 

Yesterday, my husband looked out over the # 4 hole on Hemingway GC and saw a man with a plastic bag and ball retriever fishing for golf balls in the retention pond and along the banks under the grasses. Is this allowed? We only collect the balls that end up in our landscaping!

As with most any golf courses the answer is no. The course has no issue with you retrieving your own ball/ club that found its way into the pond. As for anything outside of that, as the commercial says the answer is a big fat No. Most courses contract with folks that do that for a living. These people pay the course/ developer for the ability to do this. I am certain if the ambassadors saw this they would take the individuals name and tell them to stop. May even take the balls away from them.

Further , ball hawks slow down play and are generally agrevating.

Doesn't sound like a ball hawk but rather someone not playing at the time. I have nothing against looking for your own ball and if there is another nearby.... bonus. We do have some here that think it's their mission to hawk every ball they see. We were behind a slow group on Southern Star Thursday and on the ninth hole the slowest player of the group went looking for his tee shot in the pond. after a couple of minutes he walked up to the green and dropped four balls to dry off. Also if your skills are as rusty as mine please don't play the back tees!

If the gators in the snakes don't mind neither do I

Also, it sometimes seems that the slowest golfers take several mulligans. And then it takes them forever to find all their balls. :sigh:

If you have not paid a green fee you should not be on any course during operating hours, basically dawn to dusk. You could possibly try after dusk but get your "Carry Permit" first as Gator mating season is fast approaching!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ball hawker
 

This was toward the end of the day and was not interfering with any play. We continue to hope there are no gators in our pond - haven't seen any since our arrival in Sept. Saw our first snake yesterday, which turned out to be a big ole black racer, which I think is a cousin to the black snakes we used to have in MD. I'm not fond of snakes, but this guy seemed to be looking for gecko lunch in our landscaping. No way would I be interested in looking for balls where critters hang out!

And they never fix ball marks, skid marks (from the worm burners across the greens), divots on the tee boxes and fairways or rake the bunkers. Ah, the privileged/entitled.

After hours who cares.

Fishing for balls from a pond is a wasteful exercise. Because those Callaway critters you catch become addicted to water, once tasted, and thus have a great desire to return to water

Personal Best Regards:

Just purchased 50 of these critters for 22 bucks, Amazon 2-day. Hope you're wrong. :ohdear:

It's called Trespassing!

The "who cares attitude" is most of the problem on golf courses around here

I recently reached into a clump of cord grass and picked up 1 ball. When I looked at my hand, there were 4 ticks crawling on my arm. Also consider Brown Recluse, Wood, and Banana Spiders that call the tall grass home.

So, so true! I often see people wading through the weeds seemingly unaware of what lurks below the weed line. Besides critters there are many poisonous, prickly weeds including Florida Nettles.

They can do whatever they want to "after hours"; on a course, it probably borders on trespassing (and stealing balls from the course), although nothing would ever be done to them as this is Florida's Friendliest Hometown and you can see on the online news everyday about people getting probation for a lot worse things.

If it's during the regular hours of play, I can see this happening - a cheapskate is looking for a $.25 Topflite and a golfer hits a wayward shot and :boom:, the ball nails him. The cheapskate sues the golfer (for not being good enough to control his shots) and probably sues the course (for letting aforementioned wayward shot golfer on the course). Hey, there are 22 million people in the State of Florida; probably at least 1% of them would try that.

I always thought that they are better balls because the bad shot has already been hit out of them.:a040:

You are not allowed to trespass on the course after hours. I wouldn't recommend it by my house. My friends Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson don't like trespassers.

never mind

So your going to shoot someone not on your property?

You failed to mention the cotton mouth snakes, rattle snakes, or if reach into the water the gators. All for a golf ball!!! But this discussion like most them on here never stay on subject. Golf Ball HAWKING is not allowed during hours or after hours. :boom:

Gives new meaning to shooting a round.

Just the manly threat of force.
 

Can you imagine explaining tomthe police why younshot someone walking near your property!:a040:

so what kind of bait do you guys use fishing for golf balls????

I see rules broken all the time, but I keep my nose in my own business. :boxing2:That's why I have such a pretty nose:)! I leave up to those responsible for enforcing the rules. My watch is over. So I relax to more important things in life.:popcorn:

But what if the person fishing for golf balls lives on a golf course? And what if that person shared his/her good fortunate with neighbors and members of his/her foursome?

I m not one inclined to shag after golf balls but I do not impose on those who feel differently. It is what it is

Can't see why more people don't hunt stray balls. For those that do, may want to keep this link:

I don't care for "things" that slow up play but "ball hawking" I dislike the most because it is the most selfish and unnecessary thing you can do that slows up play on a golf course.

You are one wise Canadian. I agree 100%.

I am amazed that anyone would even remotely consider fetching a golf ball from a pond. When I was a caddy as a young man as soon as I picked up the bag of a golfer I knew what kind of day it was going to be dependant on the ball ball retriever being in the bag or not $$$. Isn't it sort of risk, reward? Seems absolutely foolish to me to even attempt it. Maybe I watched to much Swamp People! Choot 'Em Lizbeth!

There's probably people out there that change the grip on their ball retriever more often than they do their clubs. :1rotfl::1rotfl:

Ball hawker
 

That was our thought, even after hours, which is why I inquired in the first place.

Those grip handles can get expensive too! :1rotfl:

WOW! I am a gun owner, NRA member and Second Amendment supporter, but reading comments like this makes me think it may be time to repeal the Second Amendment and start collecting all guns. Starting here in The Villages.

We are on a much needed hot streak on TOTV. A whole lot of helpfulness and jocularity. I like it.

I understand being frugal, I even wish I was more frugal but not at the loss of life or limb. Grip on the ball retriever...I gotta write that one down...:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl: You found the people I once caddied for! :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

It is mating season, and someone wants to go near the water to fetch balls.............Let them be, we will read about them in the paper, remember, I do not care how fast you are, you cannot out run a gator in the first 30 feet.
On the other hand you could keep your gun (for the gator) or phone (for the poor schnook) handy when this happens, or both if you are really coordinated.:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Wow

I am thinking the man with the Smith is at sometime in the near future going away for a while. Shooting someone on a public Golf course is somewhat hard to defend I am guessing LOL. Then again it could be even TOTV has a few elderly trolls.