The 100.000 lost golf balls in Thailand
(Buntoon Rodseng / Shutterstock.com)
Let me state first that I am not a golfer. Of course I know that there are many enthusiasts among the foreigners who enjoy themselves from time to time on one of the more than 250 golf courses that Thailand has.
What I don't know is if it's an expensive sport. Special clothing, special shoes, the clubs, the entrance and/or membership fee and the golf balls.
I read a nice story about those balls on an English-language forum, which describes how things go with lost balls. I have translated for you:
Thousands of golf balls are lost every year
No wonder you tend to see loads of Thais swimming in the water features or pools of Thailand's hundreds of golf courses. That shot where you lose your ball in the water is big business for the golf ball resale market.
Suppose an average of 60 players book a tee time on a typical Saturday on all 250 courses. That's potentially 15.000 rounds of golf. So if you're like most of us, at least 2-3 balls either end up in the water, lost in the rough, or further out of bounds. That is between 30.000 and 45.000 lost balls on a Saturday.
Therefore, over an average period of 7 days, it is likely that nearly 100.000 golf balls are lost to players each week.
OK, so some balls may already be second-hand, but when you add up the number of new balls, the value is pretty staggering. For example, a box of 12 Titleist Pro V1 golf balls costs 2.500 baht.
Even if you just saw your ball fall into the water, the Thai swimmer just smiles when you ask for your ball back. You won't get that ball back because he knows you'll probably buy your ball from one of the many shops along the road that sell second-hand balls.
It would be interesting to find out how many golf balls you lose each month? Still a nice amount, which is lost if you calculate it on an annual basis.
Source: Thai Visa
About this blogger
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Bert Gringhuis (1945), born and raised in Almelo in the beautiful Twente. Later lived for many years in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, working in export for various companies. I first came to Thailand in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the country. Been back many times since then and moved to Thailand after my (early) retirement as a widower. I have been living there for 22 years now with my somewhat younger Thai lady Poopae.
My first experiences in Thailand as a kind of newsletter sent to family, friends and acquaintances, which later appeared under the name Gringo on Thailandblog. Many, many articles followed those first stories and that has grown into an almost daily hobby.
In the Netherlands still an avid footballer and football referee, but the years are starting to tell and in Thailand still avid, but the pool billiards is really of inferior quality, ha ha!
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Missed chance for the title: Thailand and the mystery of the missing balls.
I think that per game more than 2 to 3 balls are lost.
But the price of golf balls is also not always, usually not even 2500 THB for 12 balls. I think it will rather be around 500 THB. And for the purchase of 2 (3, 4, …) -hands balls even less.
But yes, there is money to be made with it.
In the photo they seem to have been washed themselves too.
Yes Gringo, that's real trading.
My husband golfs on Plutaluang and I know that at 1 or 2 water features there are just 2 frogmen PERMANENTLY in the water.
A nice distraction for those soldiers.
And they sell the balls themselves on the golf course.
I thought a bag of 10 balls for 100 baht,
So my husband is also a regular customer there.
Greetings,
LOUISE
You can buy used balls at every golf course in Thailand. Often even small children participate . You'd be crazy not to buy them. 10 baht for a ball is dirt cheap. And I also played a lot on Plutaluang. Very hilly and a lot of soldiers. I still get tired thinking about it.
Dear Gringo,
I can give some examples to get an impression of what is going on with golf balls.
A. In my glory days as a professional club fitter (making golf clubs to measure) I had a customer Cor Clement, a retired flight engineer at KLM, who had rented the water features on the golf course in the Spaarne near Haarlem and had a great year there. wages left over.
B. A good and wealthy friend had a villa on Van do Lobo in Portugal adjacent to the famous cliff that you had to hit the golf ball over to continue playing.
If you played the ball in the gaping hole then it was NOT an option to walk all the way down to find your golf ball because access was blocked with a ribbon and behind that ribbon was an old Portuguese who got rich sleeping from everything in his territory ended up.
C. In the south of Spain there is a whole organization ( Gypsy brothers ) in Cadiz that provide hundreds of young people with an income. These young people are blindly allowed to look for golf balls on the golf courses at night.
These are offered in large numbers in Cadiz to be washed and sorted and neatly done.
From Cadiz, the golf balls go to hundreds of Spaniards who then display them on the hood of their Seat Marbella, that square Fiat car parked on the road to the golf course.
Twenty years ago I was good friends with one of these salesmen, Juan, and I had found him a nice job as a carpenter.
After a week of hammering many nails into the wood, he stopped showing up for work. Waiting for a customer behind the dashboard of his Seat Marbella suited him significantly better.
Fred Repko
250 golf courses is very enthusiastic.
150 is closer.
MVG
Fred
Around 250 is definitely correct. Do you also golf yourself? I do and I go everywhere. you will be amazed at the golf courses out there. Small and big. Professional to very simple. 150 certainly already in the well-known areas of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua HIn, Kanchanaburi, Chonburi, Rayong. And then the rest of Thailand. You certainly underestimate it. Another example. In addition to the commercial courses, almost every major Army, Airforce and Navy camp has a Golf Course. And there you can often play golf as a foreigner without any problems. There are dozens in Thailand alone.