Once I abandon the search for my ball, it becomes free game.

i worry about people stealing my golf balls so i hide mine in the woods when i play.

As soon I lost it, it has now become a "finders keepers" ball

Its never yours. You’re renting them from the store and returning them to the community at the course lol

Losing balls is different than clubs, because I see losing a ball as the "Leave a Penny / Take a Penny" tray at a cash register. Sometimes you gain a ball, sometimes you donate a ball, and the world remains in equilibrium.

When you leave the hole you lost it on you have given up the rights to it

Bond stole Goldfinger’s ball on the 17th. But he was kind and returned it after the 18th. Proper etiquette.

I feel like this is the kind of conversation you have late at night after a few too many pints

Using a UV flashlight, walking the local public course over four nights, I harvested 405 balls, none of them from water, virtually all from the brush and forest along the right side of the fairways.

Golf balls are the disposable currency of the course.

As soon as you abandon the ball, its over. Only exception would be if someone found it while you were playing your provisional / re-teeing. As soon as you are on the next tee box, its 100% over.

A mate of mine who I play with regularly lost his pitching wedge on a green. When he realised and returned to find it, it was gone. We checked later and it wasn't handed in to the clubhouse. Later he found a similar wedge on Facebook marketplace which he purchased. This wedge ended up being the very same wedge he lost 😂😂😂

Lost my ball one time. A uniquely marked srixon qst Divide. Found it in my bucket at the range. Daamn right that went back in my bag

It ceases to be your ball the moment you play another, I’d say.

Found ball you may keep as long as it’s not currently being played. Clubs and club covers you return. The real grey area is towels, divot tools, and ball markers

Declare a provisional sausage roll if your pie goes missing

The moment you tee off the next hole from where you lost it, it’s fair game. When I was working as a greenskeeper on a golf course I found LOTS of great balls, since I was working early in the morning before the day’s tee times started they were all in gone forever status to the previous owner. I ended up finding out my favorite ball is the yellow soccer ball pattern Callaway Chrome Soft, followed by Taylor Made TP5 Pix.

Difference is between abandonment and lost property

Played a round with what used to be my typical 4-some years ago. Can’t remember the hole but push my tee shot right to the edge of the deep rough. All three guys were nice enough to help look. Of course, I reiterated what ball I was playing and how it was marked. After 5 minutes, I went back and re-teed. Three holes later I’m tending the flag since I had already holed out and low and behold, here comes my ball, my mark and all, rolling towards the hole. Yes, you guessed it. One of the other guys picked up my ball and pocketed it obliviously. He was always like that! In his own little world when we played!

When the conversation switched to pies, I was on my ass laughing

If you leave a wedge on a green its safe to assume that it was simply forgotten but if you leave a ball on the course its probably been abandoned. That ball stops being yours the moment you decided to abandon it.

As the ancient philosopher Skepta once said “ when you realise she was never your girl it was just your turn “ …. He was really talking about golf balls

We don't purposely lose our club, but we give up looking for balls.

Never thought about it with golf balls. I suck so I'll loose a box a round lol. But I definitely have forgotten my wedge and had someone give it back. I've also once forgot my wedge and the group behind me took it. Didn't try to ask my group if it was ours and did not return it to the clubhouse.

At my course, they'll pick up your ball off the fairway 🤣

I work on a Par 3 course, not a pitch and put, all the balls we give to visitors without equipment are found on the course. Losing a golf ball is the price you pay for playing a bad shot, the more expensive the ball, the stronger the motivation to play better golf becomes.

I live on a private course and have no fence. I’m fine with players coming into my yard to get their ball. What bothers me is, when people take a ball from my yard that is clearly not theirs because it’s been sitting there a few days. That ball is mine!

I dont worry about balls i lost cause im coming out of the woods with pockets that look like chipmunk lips.

Have been playing a pro v that I found with the name “Neil” stamped on the side. Ball has served me extremely well. If I were ever to stumble across Neil out there on the course, he’d 100% get that ball back with a thank you.

Ive bought many of my marked golf balls back from local caddies. Even on the same hole where I gave up and the caddie finds it, I pay him for it. Once you give up searching, its not yours anymore.. it's then finders keepers.

when I find a ball, it has to go in the bag for a couple of weeks to tame it. Found balls are always looking to get back into the wild if you play with them in the same round.

I started buying Calloway Superhot Bold, after playing one I'd found. so lost and found golf ball conventions can benefit people. and my record was a time a mate's vehicle quit running next to a golf course, and I agreed to mind it for him until the tow arrived. while I was waiting, I puttered around, and ended up finding a dozen balls people had hit off the course, and across the road.

Played with a mate, 5-handicapper, (many decades ago). First hole was a blind drive over a crest. He smashed one down the middle of the fairway as usual. At the top of the crest, he saw his ball wasn't where he expected, but noticed a wee git sprinting to the woods at the side. Pulling out his driver and an old ball, he smashed it in the git's direction. Hit him on the back of the thigh. He chucked the stolen ball back over his head and scarpered (hirpled) into the undergrowth.

Your ball is not yours anymore when you and your friend hit two prefect dives in the fairway and two kids run out of the woods and steal them. True story.

I have a buddy and he and I both have our initials on our Titleist golf balls and we have returned them to each other when found. It has been humorous with the stories of where we found it.

Once you give up looking for the ball, whoever finds it next gets to keep it. At the end of the day, it shouldn't be someone elses job to return your golf ball to you after you've given up looking for it.

Unlike with the wedge, there is a conscious point at which you 'give up' on a ball. You abandon the ball as lost. You never do that with a club. You never decide... welp, it's gone.

Rick, a ball's a ball mate, lost or found..! My game is so random I'm over the moon when I find any type of ball because I've lost that many..🤣🤣

I always look in the edges of woods and grab as many balls as I find. Saved so much money on balls just to hit.

Abandoned property vs mistakenly left behind? Ball vs Wedge.

I love the question about if its actually labeled. I played in an outing, found a lost ball from the group in front of me that said something like "If found return to Blue Team," I finished my round with it, played pretty well, and then tossed it back to the group in front of me when I was done with it 😅

A few years ago a couple guys were arrested for going onto a course and picking up balls from a pond. They could only be charged with trespassing because the golf course couldn't establish that the balls were their property because they were never in their physical possession nor were they purchased by the course.

The hours in my head I've had this debate is worrying...

With disk golf it's common to put your name and number on the disk. I call the owners when I find them. Also the disc golf course near me has a drop box for found disks that the local shop takes to their lost and found. It would be interesting to have your name and number printed on balls and see how many come back to you, but I bet it would be low, or not worth meeting up for.

The ball leaves the course, the ball comes back to the course, and thus the cycle repeats

I was practicing on my local P&P and saw someone else practicing. I found his TP5 and gave it back to him, he couldn't believe it. I realised from his reaction that he fully expected me to keep it.

As soon as you play another ball is the moment your lost ball becomes part of the treasure hunt for all golfers.

This whole discussion is nuts!! Once a person loses a ball, or fails to locate a ball, it’s gone. Any expectation of a found ball being returned to the original owner is unrealistic!

In disc golf we all write our phone numbers on discs. Its generally accepted that the disc still belongs to the person who lost it as long as their name and number are on it. That doesnt stop some people from stealing them though.

Your home course has a bin in the clubhouse that has the lost balls that the grounds crew find during their work day, for sale for $1 each. You start looking through to see if there is anything worth buying, and see a ball or two with your distinct mark on them. Do you buy the same ball(s) again?

I think once it's gone it's gone. If a friend finds it and knows it's yours it would be nice to get back and you just gotta take the win lol.

I have a funny story that can go along with this topic… When I get to play nicer courses, or courses with history I ALWAYS buy a ball marker. Here in the US, in the state of Alabama, there is what’s called the “Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail”. I hope to play all of the courses on the trail and buy a ball marker from each one, but to date I have only played one of them. I was using my ball marker from the Oxmoor Valley course during a round at one of my local courses (central FL). After finishing the round I was in the parking lot with my friends, packing my golf bag up when to my horror I couldn’t find my ball marker! I’m not the most religious about using a ball marker, and so the last place I remembered using it was on the 16th green. I still don’t know how I lost it. I’m assuming it dropped out of my pocket. I looked and saw the group behind us was coming off the 18th green and I went to ask them if they had seen my “blue and white poker chip ball marker from the Oxmoore Valley course on the Robert Trent Jones golf trail” I put it in quotes because I was specific and wanted to be sure they didn’t just brush me off and drive away. The guy I was speaking to immediately said “we haven’t seen a ball marker. Sorry” I pressed them a bit, not necessarily believing them to be lying but just because I didn’t like how quickly he had answered. So I asked “are you sure? It’s a big poker chip style ball marker” The same guy then asked me “what’s one the sides of it?” I immediately told him “a silhouette of the state of Alabama and the logo for the golf trail” The same guy who told me they had not seen a ball marker then reached into his pocket and pulled out my ball marker to give it back! This guy was going to not only take this ball marker in spite of the owner coming to search for it, but then tried to lie to me about it afterwards!

Unlike how we treat our clubs, players typically would not buy one ball and expect to play the whole year using that one ball. Balls are considered "consumable", i.e., they could be come damaged so that you would dispose of it and start playing with a new one. Once you stop looking for your "lost" ball it is considered "abandoned" and therefore anyone that finds it becomes the new owner.

Have the discussion from the "finders" perspective. We ALL love searching for our ball and stumbling across a worthy keeper for the bag.

Golf balls are like a forward trade. You lose one, you find one.

Just today, some walkers stole my matte yellow maxfli….IN MY OWN FAIRWAY!!! They hit their ball into my fairway, walked over to hit theirs and totally took mine

As soon as you lose sight of it 🤣 it's pretty much anyone's.

Last month I was randomly paired on the first tee with three other golfers, whom I did not know. We got along very well. I play with a specific brand, marked in a specific way in red. On hole 14, one of the players called over to me that he thought he found one of my balls. My brand, my distinctive marking in red. I said that I had lost a ball in that area three days earlier and confirmed it was my ball. He nodded, stuck it in his pocket, and walked back to his cart! Left me with my mouth wide open. I now laugh about it and it make a great story.

The reason I use 'second hand' balls 😂

A few weeks ago the group behind me returned the same ball to me twice in a round. First time around the 11th - then again as I was sitting with a drink at the clubhouse watching them finish their round... to have one of them walk over with the ball I lost again!

Its no longer your ball once it ends up in my bag 😂

Pro V1s are the ball most vulnerable to being “lost”. A ball driven onto a parallel fairway often vanishes by the time we get to the spot where it is likely to be. If it is some less desirable brand ball, we seldom lose those. Ask the golfers on the other hole and they haven’t seen it!

I've looked for my pie for three minutes and its gone 😂😂

As soon as you stop looking for it, its anyone's ball. I've lost more than I've found - win some, lose some.

I’m so bad at golf I judge a round by golf balls lost vs golf balls found😂😂😂

I got gifted golf balls by my sister in law and she put a picture of my face on them. Multiple times in the season I would end up on the first teebox at my homeclub and I'd play with people I knew who found them later and gave them back right away. Somtimes with members I didn't know I'd see them double take at me closely then reach in their bag hold up a ball at which point I'd piece it together and ask if they happened to have found a a ball with my face on it. Led to lots of funny interactions.

When I lived in the midwest you'd find more Pro-V1's than any other ball. Probably as many of them than all other balls combined except for Callaway. Since I didn't use them I generally traded them to people that found Callaways. Win, win for both.

I was playing behind a tournament the other day, was insanely slow play in the rain, one of the lads in front clearly had left his bag open and a couple of "The Belfry" marked balls had fallen out in the middle of the fairway. Once I had caught them on the next tee handed them back to him. He was very greatful, if they were any other balls they'd have been YOINKED

It's still mine. I write my social # on each ball so it can be identified and returned to me!

I think the big difference between finding/losing a ball vs something like a club or phone is that u typically “abandon” a ball while u only forget a club. For example if someone takes ur ball out of the fairway that’s still ur ball and they are in the wrong but if u lose a ball and abandon it it’s finders keepers

Today on the course I saw a younger golfer pick up the Chromesoft I just hit off the tea. He and his mate were on our fairway from the adjacent fairway after a couple of wayward shots. I confronted them and they denied picking it up and they scurried off, they then, probably out of guilt, shouted out that they had found it about 100 metres from where they picked it up - yeah right! As there was already a group waiting on the tee I just waved them off and told them to keep it.

If I owned a golf ball company, I'd drop them around various courses for people to find, hoping they'll like them and buy more. I can't tell you how many times I've switched ball brands after using a ball that I picked up on a course.

I think if the ball is actually printed like custom ordered printed with their name/design on, and you end up running into the owner I think it should be returned to the owner. If its just a penmark, then its finders keepers outside the 3 minute search rule.

I’ve just started playing golf about 2 years ago and only ever purchased balls 2 times. 😂

You never intentionally leave a wedge behind on the green. So the expectation for it to be returned is high. When you give up on the search for a lost ball you are effectively intentionally leaving it behind which in my opinion removes your ownership at that moment.

The way i see it, it stops being your ball as soon as you stop looking for it.

Legally, at least in australia, (according to the criminal law class i did) once you've stopped searching for the ball it becomes the property of the club. The relevant case i cant recall but was about people diving for golf balls in a course lake and being charged with theft, and the court determined the balls were the golf courses.

Today I found a mizuno ball in my back garden. I don't remember having any mizuno balls. Don't know if my memory is bad or a neighbour has been practicing

There is uk case law that concluded that a lost ball is considered abandoned, but then become the property of the course owners, so technically keeping a found ball is theft.

Guy solved it. The contract on course. BINGO.

Once you leave the course, they're no longer yours to claim.

When my old man, rooting round in the rough finds it! He had a dust bin full of the bl**dy things

Got paired up with a single this week, on a par 3, I could not find my ball, I see the guy pick up a ball and pocket it. It was my ball, I bet he was bummed he didn't get a free pro v. Kind of funny.

On more than one occasion.... I've had someone steal my ball from the middle of the fairway.... last time it was the group in front of me.... that same group left their wedge on the green... after they stole my ball I kept their wedge.

I've had people snatch golf balls from me all the time, and that ball will be in my fairway😂

8:06 If you lose a pie on a golf course you're actually allowed a little bit longer than the standard 3 minutes to look for it, I think its about 3.1415 minutes..

It’s fair game as soon as I decide I’m not gonna play it anymore. If someone in my group finds it when we’re on the same hole, sure it would be nice to have it returned to me. But after I’ve abandoned it, whack away Jim.

My local course have got some sort return policy, as long as you mark your ball, most of the local players will return found balls to the clubhouse where you can go through the bucket of balls and find your lost balls. However, if you loose it, as soon as you don't find it, technicly finders keepers👌

3:38 there's only one answer here and funny it comes about 3 minutes in 😂 If I'm in your group that pro v is mine, but I won't use it till next round

i forgot my Pro V in the hole on the 9th and the group behind said they did not see it, knew they were lying 100%, but it was my fault forgetting it in the first place

It's finders keepers once I hit my second ball. We're talking about $5 or less a ball... I've found more than I've lost. But I had tended to play the found ones to see if I liked it and lose those.

Possession is 9 tenths of the law 🤣

I'm about 40 18 holes deep, and just the other day, I hit what I thought was my ball and picked up another laying next to mine in the fairway and saw a guy looking everywhere for his right there 😮

I lost a golf club once, probably on the last hole, and noticed the following week. I checked the club's lost and found, and it wasn't there, but the assistant Pro told me he had seen it earlier in the week and that another member there had taken it and would probably sell it on eBay if I didn't check with him soon. It seems the member looks through the lost and found, and if the clubs aren't claimed within a month, he sells them. I found the member, and it turns out he had my club in his bag and was out playing with it that day. As for lost balls, I'm more concerned about my lost clubs.

Had some pro v’s with a logo from a tournament. One day a friend of mine show me one of them. Asked him where did he get them , he bought them from a caddy. Tried to give them back to me (didn’t care actually, finders keeper)

"it's vibe based" hahaha

IMO a lost golf ball or abandoned golf ball on the golf course becomes another person's opportunity to find, use and or keep.

once i was on the first tee wait to go and my friend pick a ball out of the water next to the tee and the starter came and gave him shit for "stealing" from the course

Once you stop looking for it and play a new ball, it's up for grabs.

if you play golf you know.. if you cant find it fast then its gone.and it doesnt really matter because you find some that arent yours also. so sometimes you lose em and sometimes you find em.