The best spot on the golf course to find stray balls may not be where you expect. I'll cut right to the chase: It's to the left of the middle tees (on certain holes).
I speak from personal experience. I played my home course, Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville, Colorado, on a pleasant but cool day. Temperature in the low to mid 40s kept most golfers away, but not me. I love having the course mostly to myself.
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It wasn't completely empty, and after a few holes I got in sight of a twosome in front of me. Since I had to wait a bit (and there was no one behind me), I embraced my inner frugal golfer and hunted for stray balls. Over the course of 9 holes, I collected 2 dozen.
What's interesting, though, is that 15 of those balls were found in one location. You can see the spot on the aerial course map above. I play the middle tees, so on hole 15 while I waited for the twosome ahead to clear, I looked in the rough and a creek to the left of the middle tee. That's where I found my golf treasure.
Why would this be? It's simple. Lots of golfers who think they have ability to play the back tees ... don't. So they sometimes hit a stinker off the back tee, and in the case of hole 15 their ball comes to rest in the junk next to the middle tee. (How embarrassing!)
Hole 15 at Coal Creek, I think, is especially prone to this behavior. It's the second-hardest hole on the course, and as you can see, the tee shot is tricky – especially from that back tee. Not only is it a long carry to get to the fairway, but your ball must be threaded through a chute of trees. (I find it a difficult shot even from the middle tee.)
My educated guess is this: Due to the length to reach the fairway, many back-tee golfers on hole 15 try to really kill the ball. That doesn't always go well.
Here's one more interesting finding: Of the 15 balls I found in this location, 10 were what I consider to be quality balls. My find included mostly Titleist Pro V1s and Callaway Chromesofts, a couple Taylormade TP5s, and a Srixon Z-Star. Most were in excellent condition.
I have another theory about that. Golfers who think they are good enough to play the championship tees probably feel that it's important to play quality golf balls. (I only found one TopFlite next to the middle tee.)
So, this is my tip of the day for fellow frugal golfers. Check next to the middle and front tees – especially on holes where there's hazard next to the tees – and replenish you ball supply with some quality found balls.
(If you want more tips on how to best find stray golf balls, check out an earlier article I wrote: Finder's keepers: Etiquette and advice for finding golf balls.)
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