64 replies to this topic

[QWKDTSN]

Today I went out for a dawn round, just practicing, not really keeping score.  I make the turn about 7:30 AM and tee off on the short 13th hole at my home course with a 2 iron into a stiff breeze.  Pull it slightly, left side of the fairway, in good shape.  My second shot is just a little 50 yard chip wedge over the corner of an elevated bunker to a front pin location.  Smooth swing, good contact, ball is right on line.  Heck, it might even be in the hole.  I couldn't see it land because the bunker is actually taller than the surface of the green.  I walk up, expecting to find the ball within 6 feet of the hole.  No ball on the green.  Sweet!  I must have put it in the hole for an eagle two.  Bend over the cup, and.... no ball.

I started looking around, my gaze taking in the whole green, and then look back in the cup just to double-check.  No ball anywhere in sight.

I went back and checked in the front bunker, in a few clumps of tallish grass, and then started walking in a spiral around the green.  There was nobody else around me, and I wasn't worried about my 5 minute time limit - I just wanted to find that ball - it was a nearly new Pro V1X!!

Over ten minutes of searching could not locate it anywhere.  The only thing I can imagine is that it hit the flagstick and ricocheted off in some random direction, but I think I should have noticed that from 50 yards away.

[mat562]

I've often wondered the same about the millions of clearly labelled packages that go adrift in the Royal Mail's system every year.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

A few weeks ago I was playing a round on "one of those days". I couldn't hit the ball out of my own shadow, toe-shanking chip shots, three putts on every green and even a four-putt. I'll bet I'd taken a hundred strokes by the thirteenth or fourteenth hole. It was that ugly.

I had to walk the last couple holes to get back to the clubhouse anyway so I kept playing. The seventeenth is a Par 3 about 135-140 to an elevated green. As bad as I was hitting it I figured it would take all of a 5-iron to get it up there. Took a nice full backswing and, just as I was taking the club back from the ball, with no warning, an absolute downpour of rain started out of nowwhere. It was spooky how sudden it went from no rain to almost can't see the green.

I finished the swing and felt that pure, pure contact that lets you know that a 5-iron is going a lot farther than any 140 yards, uphill or not. The last glimpse I saw of that ball it was clearing the bunker behind the green and I swear it was still climbing. I was also completely soaking wet before I could put the club in my bag and start walking toward the clubhouse. Never found that ball, never looked for it. I hope it's happy where ever it is.

Postscript. The exact moment I stepped under the porch awning of the clubhouse it stopped raining as suddenly as it had started. By the time I went in and grabbed some towels to start drying off my gear the sun was shining. Not another drop of rain the rest of the day. True story.

[eric_b]

I have a friend who will, approximately once a month, lose a ball to a perfectly good drive.....maybe a titch off line....but should be easily findable in the rough.....nothing.  I have no clue how it happens.  Once, he hit a drive that was maybe 2 feet into the left rough....a marshal was near by and said "it landed right there" as we're looking for it.....so we said "where?".....and this went back and forth until he came to look with us for about 5 minutes.....nothing.....it was gone.

Friggin' weird.

[Aithos]

I just bought some new Callaway hex black balls a little over a week ago.  Thus far I've lost two entire sleeves, only two of those were obviously gone (way OB).  The rest were either just off the fairway or just over a green (pretty sure that one got picked up in the time it took to walk to it since it landed on another hole as a group was playing it). I actually get a lot more frustrated at that than playing poorly, it pisses me off and I don't swing as well.  I need cheap golf balls...

[joshn08]

Same thing happened to me yesterday.  I hit my drive on the first tee maybe 5 yards off the right of the fairway using one of the Srixon Z star yellow balls.  I saw it land and knew the vicinity of where it should be.  Probably looked for ten minutes and couldn't find it.  Sadly the same thing happened the next hole.  How do I lose two NEON YELLOW balls that are just off the fairway.  I smell some shenanigans.

[KYMAR]

Buddy and i were playing last year, shortish par 4 maybe 370 but gently uphill all the way, he takes his "5 wood" and i say that with quotes because it's the same 5 wood he had in high school. Gray steel head, steel shaft, looks smaller than nearly all hybrids these days. I think it's a dunlop. Anyway he hits it and pops it up just a touch, stil pretty good contact and the thing is climbing we are watching it, watching it, watching it and it falls somewhere in the fairway but we both comment how we lost in on the tree line. There were zero worries about finding it. Anyway we looked from the 150 back to the 200 yard markers for no less than 10 min (no one else out there). The fairway was a little soft and the ball may have plugged a little but it didn't seem like it was soaked in a way that the ball would just get sucked into the earth. It was the most bizarrre example of this i can think of.

[FDSouthPaw]

13th hole at my home course is TERRIBLE about this.  I cannot count the times I've hit a drive about where I wanted, saw the ball land, watched where it bounced, picked a tree out for reference and I don't find it.  It's happened with friends watching, by myself, morning, evening... this hole hates me.  I'm OK with losing a ball I didn't see land (cutting a dog leg, etc) but it is perhaps the most aggravating thing that happens to me to lose a ball I KNOW was in play.

[greens hit]

Somewhere, there exists a big pile of unmatched socks and golf balls.

[gmangolf]

I had a friend hit a three wood from a very wet lie once. He nutted it but we couldn't find it up by the green. Got back to the spot so he could hit again... He must have hit down on the ball because if went about 8 inches in front of him and about 8 inches deep into the ground. Crazy.

Edited by gmangolf, 30 April 2012 - 03:46 PM.

[Man In The Miura]

I hit a drive a little off line into a popular spot amongst the trees at my home course.  I couldn't find it.

To test the theory that balls DO NOT disappear into anoth dimension, I vowed not to give up looking until I found it. (I was the only one on the course.)  I looked 20+ minutes, circling, retracing the flight, making a grid, being very thorough and diligent.  No ball.  I took another walk back and retraced the flight of the ball, AND THERE IT WAS.  It was exactly where I was looking.  My footprints through the rough where all around the friggin' ball.  It was sitting in plain sight.  

The only thing I could think of is that the lighting had changed, and the ball had somehow blended with the shadows of the trees.  Very disturbing.

My motto when looking for a ball is "Look where you're not looking."

[darkhelmet]

Hit a 3-wood on a short par 4.  Spring day, soft (but not swamped) ground, and I was hitting dead into the wind.  Hit the ball great, but then it got into the wind and started climbing and climbing and climbing.  Dead straight shot and I never found it (or even a hole in the fairway) -- must have come straight down and plugged 3 feet into the turf.

That three wood used to be the longest club in my bag -- I could outdrive most of my friends with it, so I never carried a driver (not to mention I couldn't hit a driver straight).  That day I went home and started looking at drivers.

[Chilepepper]

 greens hit, on 30 April 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Somewhere, there exists a big pile of unmatched socks and golf balls.

  This is my explanation of this phenomena. Some unseen force demands periodic sacrifices, socks and golf balls seem to be whats demanded

[MtlJeff]

i can beat any of this LOL....i once lost a ball i dropped because i had lost another ball. It was fall so there were a lot of leaves on the ground. I hit a drive that landed on the fairway but couldn't find it, which resulted in a clear leaf rule scenario. I dropped a ball and then went to help my friend find his. When i came back to hit mine, i now couldn't find it AGAIN. I lost 2 balls on the fairway

[DigDugDig]

I think it's a similar phenomena as in the movie "Time Cop."

I've probably hit a ball in that exact same spot on the same course in a previous time, but the same matter cannot occupy the same place at the same time.  So what happens is as shown here, only with golf balls.

 timecop.jpg   23.6K   13 downloads

[dpwigolfer]

happened to me a couple weeks ago just off in the rough maybe a couple yards but it was just before dusk so it happens

[Crab Daddy]

I'm certain that sometime later in the day, another golfer sees your ball sitting in the grass, as plain as day, and wonders, "How could somebody lose that ball?"

[divotbeltran]

Happens to me all the time.

[QWKDTSN]

 Crab Daddy, on 30 April 2012 - 09:47 PM, said:

I'm certain that sometime later in the day, another golfer sees your ball sitting in the grass, as plain as day, and wonders, "How could somebody lose that ball?"

Spot on!

[aliikane]

It is bothersome. Especially, cause of the lost ball rule and having to go all the way back to original spot to play the shot again. So, to play by the rules, going all the way back to re-hit takes a good 10 mins and  you stop all play behind. It isn't really feasible. That is the one rule I would like to see changed.

[Thrillhouse]

you know when you see one sneaker on the highway? the lost balls are in a big pile with all the other sneakers somewhere.

[KYMAR]

 Thrillhouse, on 01 May 2012 - 02:08 AM, said:

you know when you see one sneaker on the highway? the lost balls are in a big pile with all the other sneakers somewhere.

The one shoe on the highway thing makes me assume that there is a huge pile of legs and feet somewhere with the other shoe.

[Rebel420]

This past Sunday, didn't have time to pull out a full round so decided to hit a small par-3 course near the house.   Figuring its an open field, would give me a chance to try out one of the Pentax TP I had.  So I get to hole 6 where I hit the ball over a hill onto a hidden green.  I miss the green and ball lands in thick grass loaded with dandelions in seed.  I find it and move to the 7th.  A "long" 220 yards, frailty downhill.  Driver is out of question as 15 yards past green is a row of tall grass and shrubs with a 4 lane highway on the other side.  Thinking downhill, and with hard greens, my 4 wood also bad because if I hit green, the bounce would be as bad as overshooting.   So I settle in with a 5 hybrid (24*). Shot flies perfect, should make the green (I can consistently hit 205-210 with this on range).  Ball not on green.  Again rough grass with dandelions.  I search up and down for 10 min.  Finally someone is on tee box so I motion for him to play thru.      As he is walking up to green an we are BSing. He points out my ball.  Perfectly in line with the pin from the tee, not even 5 feet from green.

[youngstructural]

 Rebel420, on 01 May 2012 - 06:47 AM, said:

This past Sunday, didn't have time to pull out a full round so decided to hit a small par-3 course near the house.   Figuring its an open field, would give me a chance to try out one of the Pentax TP I had.  So I get to hole 6 where I hit the ball over a hill onto a hidden green.  I miss the green and ball lands in thick grass loaded with dandelions in seed.  I find it and move to the 7th.  A "long" 220 yards, frailty downhill.  Driver is out of question as 15 yards past green is a row of tall grass and shrubs with a 4 lane highway on the other side.  Thinking downhill, and with hard greens, my 4 wood also bad because if I hit green, the bounce would be as bad as overshooting.   So I settle in with a 5 hybrid (24*). Shot flies perfect, should make the green (I can consistently hit 205-210 with this on range).  Ball not on green.  Again rough grass with dandelions.  I search up and down for 10 min.  Finally someone is on tee box so I motion for him to play thru.      As he is walking up to green an we are BSing. He points out my ball.  Perfectly in line with the pin from the tee, not even 5 feet from green.

During the fall the leaves here in Michigan can get pretty bad, even on a freshly cut fairway...so my friends and I will play a "lost in plain sight" rule, meaning that if we all agree that the ball is in a location, (and trust me, we don't always agree), then the person who's ball is lost gets a free drop from a conservitively selected locaion nearest where the ball was last agreed upon to have been seen.  I know this isn't in line with USGA, but in 40-50 degree October weather, we're just hapy to be there and because we're not handicapping for tourneys or anything offical -- just gamblng amongst ourselves, none of us have a problem with it.  It also keeps us moving and not searching under every leaf all day for a ball.

[Ranger Rick]

Happened to me 3 times the last 18 I played. One ball I hit left of the fairway, walking and can't see it so I turn around and start walking back and it was lying there with a leaf over it in such a way that it would be impossible to see from one direction but perfectly visible from the other side. Hit a drive on a par 5, big dogleg right and the ball faded a bit too much and catches the trees, hear it hit the branch but I couldn't see where it came down, my mate said he saw it though. Cool, I thought, it is pretty easy to find your balls there 90% of the time and it was a brand new, sparkling white Penta so it should stick out. Walking up there and we see one ball, my other mates Srixon. Look around and mine is no where to be seen, I was bloody furious. Dropped one down in the fairway and nailed a 4 iron 220m out of anger. Had another shot on the 10th, was 150 out wind with me so I take an 8i. Hit it ok but not as solid as I had hoped and I see the ball coming down and lose it about 2m above the green. There was a bunker short, not in there, a bunker right, not there either, it wasn't long and it wasn't 15m short in the water either. Just vanished.

[Puppetmaster]

This thread is great. As someone else posted, it has happened to me many times with the drives that are just off the fairway. I remember also once hitting one of the purest drives ever with my then 9015D, straight down the middle of the fairway on a 430 yard par 4, a straightaway hole with no bunkers, no dogleg, and walked down to find that it had completely vanished. I looked from side to side of the fairway starting at 250 off the tee to about 350, just in case, but nothing. My only explanation was that it was such a pure strike it carried 275 and ran 200, through the green, and didn't think to look there. That's what helps me sleep at night.

[brian575]

Now I know this has happened to you.  I have searched for my ball in a logical spot even in the middle of the fairway and have been unable to find it.  I drop a ball where I think it should be so I do not hold up everyone.  I take two steps and see my original ball 10 feet from where I just hit from.  I loose more balls in the fairway than anyone else I have ever heard of.  I have a real problem picking up my ball in flight.  I tried the yellow balls and it seems to help just a little but I still loose too many balls.

[peat24]

this happened to me during a 10 man, 9-hole, SCRAMBLE. first was an AWFUL tee shot that went maybe, maybe, 50 yards dead right (starting hole, league, beer, and 20 dudes watching--was a little nervous)--lost ball #1. par 3 downhill, 9iron. high cut, pushed over bunker, green missed. i walked over expecting it to be right past the bunker, nothing. we all putted out, and then 7 guys searched and searched. nothing. lost ball #2.

somewhere there are 2 pro V1s with orange dots waiting to be found.

-a.

[JDorfler]

I'm really thinking there is something about the multi-universe thing.  If you take your eye off the ball for a second while it's in the air I believe there is a chance it lands on another Earth.  This explains missing socks as well.

[ProjectX]

F-ing Wormholes! Every damn time