February 10, 2022 by Philip Lewenstein

Record Year for Finding Golf Balls

For the second consecutive year, rounds of golf increased significantly in 2021, according to a Minnesota Golf Association survey.

Meanwhile, I found a record number of balls in 2021 on my daily walks in March through November, bolstered by my wife’s heroic, single-day-record discovery one April day.

It is uncertain whether a correlation exists between the increase in golf participation and my success in finding stray balls. Indisputably, however, I found a record 137 balls in 2021, according to my meticulous records. The 2021 total was up from about 100 balls I found in 2020, a large increase over the 70 typically found in previous years.

Four years ago, I wrote about my experience finding balls “(Finding Golf Balls Is Not a Compulsion But I Sure Enjoy the Sport,” November 16, 2017, www.philsfocus.com). I am still walking and finding more balls than ever.

I find balls on my regular walking route. From my house in Vadnais Heights, I head north on McMenemy Street until I reach Highway 96, which runs east and west through Vadnais Heights. On the north side of 96 is the North Oaks Golf Club, a par 71 course of 6,655 yards, rolling hills, numerous water hazards, and a mixture of oak and birch trees.

On the south side of 96, parallel to the highway, are a grassy area, an adjacent sidewalk, and a fence; the fence serves as a border for the Vadnais-Sucker Lake Regional Park. From McMenemy, I turn west onto 96 and follow the sidewalk for about a mile until reaching Rice Street, the border with Shoreview. Then, I turn back and walk east to McMenemy Street.

Ten or eleven years ago, I began to occasionally find golf balls on my walk. Some days I would find one ball; other days I would find two balls. And on lucky days, I would find three or more balls. In the past eleven years, I have found more than 850 balls.

I find balls mostly in the grassy areas next to the highway, but sometimes find a “hot one,” recently struck by a golfer, in the middle of the sidewalk or along the fence. Occasionally, I see a ball behind the fence and backtrack to the ball. Going out of my way takes extra effort, but it is worth the reward of gaining another ball, as my wife discovered last April.

It is scary to think that for me to find golf balls, they must have traveled across the heavily-trafficked highway. I have never seen a ball come across the highway, though I once heard one.

I found my first two balls of 2021 on April 3 and through April 21 had found nine balls, an auspicious start to the season, not surprising given the warm weather and early presence of golfers.

Then, on Thursday, April 22, an extraordinary event occurred as my wife, Frances, joined me on my walk.

We walked west on the sidewalk on the south side of 96. When we reached the entrance to the park from the sidewalk by Sucker Lake, Frances split from me and soon reappeared behind the fence that separates the sidewalk from the woods.

Soon, she started to bend over to pick up golf balls—some visible and fresh, others covered with dirt, entrenched in the ground, perhaps having rested there all winter.

Frances would come to the fence to hand balls to me, which I put in my shorts pocket; as this process continued, the balls began to weigh down my shorts. As she continued to find balls, she removed her cap and used it as a basket for the balls. By now, she had found 13 balls while navigating tough terrain.

Continuing to walk west, parallel to the golf course on the north side of 96, Frances wanted to exit the wooded area, which goes all the way, without an opening in the fence, to Rice Street before ending further south on Rice Street.

I discouraged Frances from climbing over the fence. However, she came upon a dead, downed tree, which was in an inclined position, starting on the ground and rising several feet to the top of the fence.

Frances hopped onto the tree and, with superb balance, as on a gymnast’s balance beam, walked up the tree toward the fence. At the end of the tree, several big branches stuck out, making it difficult for Frances to plan her drop over the fence. Yet she maneuvered herself into position, and, as I gasped, dropped onto my side of the fence.

We walked further east on 96, but soon Frances ran across the highway and began walking east along the rough bordering the North Oaks Golf Club, not far from groups of golfers. As she approached the top of the hill on 96, she ran across the highway to my side and handed me five more balls, giving us 18 for the day. I found three more balls in April for a month’s total of 30, almost half the total for some years.

Bolstered by Frances’s heroic effort, I found 137 balls for the season over eight months, ranging from one in November to 33 in August.

Besides the 33 balls in August and 30 in April, I found 22 in September, 17 in July, 14 in May, 13 in June, 7 in October, and the 1 in November.

On three separate days in August, I found four balls. I found three balls twice in May, twice in June, three times in July, three times in August, and once in September. I found two balls 18 times.

I found balls on 70 separate days, 47 % of the 149 days I walked this route. I found balls on 16 of 23 days walked in August, or 70 %, and 13 of the 21 days walked in September, or 62 %.

From about 2011 through 2019, I found about 630 balls, or 70 per year. In 2020, I found about 100 balls and in 2021 I found 137 balls. My records were more precise the past two years than the earlier years.

The balls had been housed in baskets in cabinets in our garage as well as in two vases in our living room. Also, a couple years ago, Frances gave me a display case which holds 25 balls. She selected the 25 balls from my collection, all marked with logos from Coke to Wells Fargo to Goldy Gopher. This case resides in my office.

Last summer, we had to clean the garage before installing a new floor, so I moved the balls into our family room where the number of balls rivals the overflowing number of books.

In 2017, I attributed the frequency of finding balls to several variables: the length of the golf season as influenced by weather, the number of rounds played, the golfers’ level of accuracy, the number of days I walk, the benefits of cataract surgeries, and possible competition from other golfers. I occasionally see people searching for balls along the golf course rough, as Frances did that April day.

The Minnesota Golf Association reported that this year’s average rounds increased in part because of better weather, more playable days during spring and fall, a record number of beginner and lapsed golfers participating in the game, and core golfers playing more.

Tom Ryan, the association’s executive director and COO, noted that during the pandemic, golf was one of the few sports or activities that all Minnesotans could safely participate in throughout the summer. For 2020, with restrictions in place during the pandemic on most forms of outdoor recreational activities, golf rounds surged by an average of 31.5 %.

The new data, Ryan said, shows that the remarkable momentum was sustained through the 2021 season.

In the midst of a cold Minnesota winter, I dream of warm, sunny walks during the 2022 golf season, renewing the thrill of finding more balls, and expanding my golf-ball collection.