Looking for lost golf balls is the No 1 contributor to slow play on the golf course. The rules do allow a 5 minutes time limit to look for a golf ball but this is for professional tournament play and in some instances where the rules are followed to the letter. Just because the rules say you can doesn’t mean you should, do you follow all the rules? Always be aware of groups behind you that might be waiting on your search. But in recreational play having fun, playing loose with the rules (or ignoring them) – you should never, ever use the full five minutes. Please give up and move on so play isn’t held up for everyone behind you. The deeper the rough, the longer time that amateurs spend looking for golf balls. At $3 apiece, they might as well be solid gold to some golfers. On the other hand I think for some people it is more about the challenge of finding lost balls, they are called Ball Hawks, they can’t stand to lose a golf ball, they search forever for their golf ball in the trees or the water. What can wedo about this? Once the Golf Hawk goes into the trees to look for their golf ball, always help them look. After one minute of searching – you might say: ‘I think that one’s gone. Here hit this one. I believe you could drop it right here. Ask me if that works. Of course it works! The answer just about every time, after they see where you dropped the golf ball is – “Yeah, you’re right, that golf ball’s gone. Here keep that one; I’ll hit one of the golf balls I found.” Because of course they found 4 golf balls in their search, didn’t find theirs, but would’ve kept looking because I believe they like the enjoyment of finding as many golf balls as they can. There are some tips to assist you in finding your ball:
• Follow your bad shots. It’s easy to get discouraged with a bad shot and look away, but following your ball until it meets the ground can make it much easier to find when you walk over to the area.
• Practice estimating the carry of a shot. If you hit a blind, estimating the carry based on how high the arc of your shot was could give you a general idea of where the ball landed, increasing your odds of finding it once you walk up the green.
• Use landmarks to mentally mark the location of your lost ball. If you catch site of a colored marker, unique tree or another feature when you follow your shot to the ground, you can use that as a starting point to get to where the ball landed.
If you are aware that looking for lost balls can seriously affect the pace of play which affects the group behind you and all the other groups that follow as well as the golf courses schedule and Golfaround’s reputation you wiil limit the time you spend and if the balls are worth their weight in gold maybe use inexpensive balls.