[flipmode]

From CNN

Reading the news this morning and ran across this article.

[outgolfing]

Was wondering when something like that would hit the media with everything being so "think green". I do have to say I think about that when I shank one in the woods or water. Wondering how long will it be till its ever discovered again, mostly Im just pissed I shanked it though.

[tmfool]

great news...
congress can add lost golf balls to your carbon cap tax.
surely they will need to exempt former presidents from the lost ball tax

[youraway2]

It will never end. Here at our course we have experienced the Green Finger of Fate with what is called the Mill Creek Project. Our local environmentalist through a government grant (your tax dollars of course) decided to clean out and re-route a small creek that flows into our course, under our 14th fairway and divides our 2nd and 17th holes. They came in with their bulldozers, and other earth moving equipment to save the Okaloosa Snail Darter. It was a great day! You see it’s important for the darter to swim in moving water and in sun lit areas. For months they dug and rerouted our creek. They brought in large gas-powered pumps to bypass our 14th fairway as the placed large conduits under the fairway. After burying 8 foot in diameter conduits, they installed four large skylights so the sun could get in.

You might wonder about the sanity of it all but why bother, it’s obvious. Oh I fail to mention that the miles of stream before and after the Mill Creek Project have gone with little if any attention. The roadway adjacent to and before the 14th fairway where the stream passes underneath the road is left, yep, without skylights. One would wonder how a Snail Darter can swim under the road without skylights; darn if I know. The creek areas before and after the Mill Creek Project (our fairways) have been left to massive undergrowth of unwanted yaupon bushes, trees and weeds which block the sun. Our three lakes have gone without attention after numerous hurricanes filled them with unwanted down creek silt. Now since they are so shallow unwanted weed growth is overtaking them.

Recently environmental teachers and students were visiting studying the results of the project and they informed me what a success it was. I asked how you know. Well they caught a few darters before the project and injected different colored radioactive dyes under the dorsal fin. Now the claim the purple darters now exist downstream when they didn’t before. I responded that the data was flawed since they pumped the water from one side of our course to the other with 8 inch hoses and pumps. Their obvious malcontent for my observation was evident.

Now we have well marked Environmental Sensitive Areas to protect the Darter from insensitive golfers even though the Darter has long been removed for any protected list (no more grant money).

I’ve always wondered how bulldozers in the hands of an environmentalist cause less damage to the Darter, than a golfer simply trying to fish out a ball with a retriever.

I’m so happy the project was a success and we should be proud how our 5-milllion dollars has been used. But dang, should I be happy since we now have these great skylights right in the middle of our 14th fairway to deflect our ball into the creek.

Sorry for the long rant.

[chickenpotpie]

If lostgolfballs.com wants to get out in front of this, they should be promoting their "green-ness".

I have some experience in plastics and I have to say that biodegradeable or photodegradeable golf balls are decades away. Even if one did exist, they would make Pro V's look cheap.

[dlygrisse]

I like how the article ends with saying you could buy biodegradable golf balls, while I am sure they exist I am quite confident they wouldn be worth a bag of rocks for playing golf. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[j0npeterson]

Like I said in one of the other threads... I used to hit balls into the ocean off the beach, but then some crazy hippie laid into me about doing it. I can't help but think it really wasn't a big deal... right?

[dlygrisse]

j0npeterson, on Nov 10 2009, 07:29 PM, said:

Like I said in one of the other threads... I used to hit balls into the ocean off the beach, but then some crazy hippie laid into me about doing it. I can't help but think it really wasn't a big deal... right?

Ha Ha Ha, reminds me of the Seinfeld episope when Kramer hit the golf ball in the whales blow hole.....funny stuff. OTOH I have never really worried about anything a crazy hippie told me, except where to get the best late night munchies.

[The_Lama]

youraway2--don't apologize for the length of your post, that was one well written, well reasoned (and entertaining) read. Reminds me a couple years ago a guy that worked for me got a couple dump trucks worth of top soil for his yard. It was loaded with old golf balls! Obviously it came from either a golf course pond or old driving range. I LMAO when I saw his new dirt.

But, I will say I've always been amazed at the number of golf balls we all collectively consume. At some point one would think the manufacturers would find their markets shrinking--apparently the woods aren't quite yet full of long hitters.

[kemau]

dlygrisse, on Nov 10 2009, 07:15 PM, said:

I like how the article ends with saying you could buy biodegradable golf balls, while I am sure they exist I am quite confident they wouldn be worth a bag of rocks for playing golf. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

or maybe it is worth more than that.....dixon earth is the official golf ball of the egolf pro tour (formerly named the tarheel tour where tommy two gloves knocked it around before finding his way to the nationwide and pga tours). 392 dimple pattern is a familiar one & something must be right about 'em it if the ok is given to represent the organization

http://www.dixongolf...11/Default.aspx

[bermuda]

kemau, on Nov 10 2009, 11:14 PM, said:

dlygrisse, on Nov 10 2009, 07:15 PM, said:

I like how the article ends with saying you could buy biodegradable golf balls, while I am sure they exist I am quite confident they wouldn be worth a bag of rocks for playing golf. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

or maybe it is worth more than that.....dixon earth is the official golf ball of the egolf pro tour (formerly named the tarheel tour where tommy two gloves knocked it around before finding his way to the nationwide and pga tours). 392 dimple pattern is a familiar one & something must be right about 'em it if the ok is given to represent the organization

http://www.dixongolf...11/Default.aspx

I received a sleeve of those in an eGolf tournament earlier this year. I haven't tried them yet but will. If golf balls can be made to be biodegradable, affordable and still perform, why not? Just watching the HSBC Smog Championship this weekend should have been enough to convince people that environmental protection is worthwhile.

[jaskanski]

mat562, on Nov 11 2009, 07:37 PM, said:

I remember reading that population growth is now exponential and that the number of humans on the surface of the Earth doubles every forty years or so. Energy consumption is also rising at a rate that means that, at the current rate of growth, the surface of the planet will be, quite literally, growing red hot by something like the year 2600.

You can see how population capping measures or birth control programs make perfect sense, as well as the development of new energy technologies, but I'm not sure I can grasp how targeting the number of non-degradable golf balls that end up in ponds is going to make much of a difference.

Still, that government grant money's not going to spend itself, and a whole army of people fill their working days by coming up with nonsense like this to cater to the eco crowd.

I remember getting a rollocking, many moons ago, for hitting half a dozen golf balls into the Atlantic from the flight deck of a ship on which I was serving. Apparently, a set of maritime regulations class it as pollution. Of the mile-deep water we were in at the time. That was part of the 3000-odd mile-wide ocean.

Keep taking my money to pay for it all, I say. Our troops are being killed because they haven't got helicopters and folk are starving by the million. In the grand scheme of things, spending money on cracking down on non-degradable golf balls is a step in the right direction in my book.

Well put,
there are a lot more pressing issues that concern the earth's well-being, without the local anti-golfers trying to bring our beloved game into the mix. It must be noted by the way, that golf balls that are hit into water or lakes (maybe not the sea, mat) are to a large extent reclaimed and recycled - precisely the actions that these do-gooders are trying to force upon us. We've been recycling for years!
That being said, if my dad caught someone whacking golf balls off his deck - god forbid. He much preferred cricket at sea.

[mat562]

Sadly, the skipper was right and I was in the wrong. A bit like the walking across a green with a bag on your shoulder argument, you can argue, work out how a few cubic inches of plastic and rubber bands (it was a while ago) relates to God knows how many cubic miles of seawater and all the rest but, at the end of the day, you're still in the wrong.

As an aside, I couldn't help but laugh the other morning when, on my way back into the office after a night shift, I saw the local bin men happily picking up two different coloured bins and emptying the contents of each into the back of the same lorry. It makes you wonder how you'd go on at court if you pleaded not guilty when the fixed penalty plopped onto the doormat for inadvertently putting a glass bottle in the plastics only bin. Given that we're now having electronic 'spies' (paid for by us of course) secreted in our wheelie bins to ensure compliance with the local recycling policies, that one incident sums up my apathy towards a lot of 'pressing environmental concerns' perfectly.

The only sure thing is that someone, somewhere, possibly with a non-degree from a third rate polytechnic and the title of 'Environmental Consultant', is getting rich on the back of it all.

If the biggest problems facing mankind are golf balls that sit at the bottom of ponds and don't rot and recycling companies not being able to sort out different categories of waste without bullying the law-abiding public into doing it for them with a sort of Dustbin Gestapo, my name's Doris.

Since I'm on about recycling, it's only fair to agree with you. Many of the balls that are lake-bound these days are, in any case, recycled by enterprising sorts with some scuba gear and a net. Apart from that place in England where the memorable line was displayed on a 'No Trespassing' sign where they warned that unauthorised scavengers would be prosecuted and have their balls removed of course.

[Obsessotron]

mat562, on Nov 11 2009, 03:11 PM, said:

The only sure thing is that someone, somewhere, possibly with a non-degree from a third rate polytechnic and the title of 'Environmental Consultant', is getting rich on the back of it all.

Precisely. I don't think anyone in their right mind could argue that we could all afford to be less wasteful, but it is interesting how high-minded progressives use the guise of "Green" to dictate the way people live their lives. All the while the use guilt and fear to further feed their Green cash cow with things like:

- Carbon Credits
- Massive government research grants to universities and mega conglomerates to companies like GE
- Multiple mandatory recycling bins
- Environmental taxes on businesses from large to small
- Additional taxes on fuel & food
- Incentives for media outlets to promote green values (and products at the same time)

The list goes on and on, we need to stand up to this because we are being duped.

[Mike_C]

Quote

Like I said in one of the other threads... I used to hit balls into the ocean off the beach, but then some crazy hippie laid into me about doing it. I can't help but think it really wasn't a big deal... right?

Is this you?

Quote

Ha Ha Ha, reminds me of the Seinfeld episope when Kramer hit the golf ball in the whales blow hole.....funny stuff. OTOH I have never really worried about anything a crazy hippie told me, except where to get the best late night munchies.

We better call in a marine biologist to help out....

[Sawgrass]

I'm no scientist. I pretty much know nothing about "saving" the environment.

But I've stood next to a lava flow, and watched molten rocks slide by me to steam in the sea.

Somehow, after seeing that, I can't escape the thought, "Don't worry, the Earth doesn't care. It will tend to itself, in the way of its own choosing. And you don't have a prayer at influencing it."

I'm not saying we shouldn't behave well. I'm just saying we're probably kidding ourselves.

[stephenmatthia]

what is that, a Titleist?

[tbowles411]

I think the issue is the zinc that is in the ball. They say that it can poison the water or whatever when the ball begins to. But one flaw in that theory is that American pennies are made of almost entirely on zinc. Think of how many pennies are lost? I call "shenanigans!"