According to ultimategolfadvantage.com, around ‘540 million golf balls are estimated to be sold each year in the United States alone, of which approximately 300 million are lost.’ This substantial figure has seen wildlife experts reel back in horror, owing to the detrimental effect these small balls can have on the surrounding environment. With approximately ‘35,000 golf courses around the world’ and each golf ball taking, as noted by greenlivingideas.com, ‘between 100 to 1000 years to decompose’, let's take a look at where our golf balls may end up.

The strangest places people have found golf balls on the planet:

Swallowed by land animals

Photo credit:Jan Cancik/Shutterstock 

Foxes: As noted by discoverwildlife.com, ‘Foxes generally carry eggs away from nests. They may eat them or they will cache (bury) them for consumption later. The whole egg is taken in the mouth, crushed and the contents eaten. Eggshells are left some distance from the nest.’

Snake: Back in 2008, a story in the Mail featured a snake which had, ‘four big bumps in its belly and looked like a python in an advanced stage of pregnancy.’ It was later revealed by X-ray that, ‘the four round objects were too symmetrical to be eggs. In addition, the 6ft snake was a male. The reptile, nicknamed Augustus, was confirmed after vets performed an operation to have consumed 4 golf balls.’

Doberman: A recent dog named Zeus was also featured in the Mail, for being ‘named the winner of a competition to find the most bizarre things pets have eaten. An x-ray from one-year-old Doberman revealed the 26 golf balls that were lodged inside his stomach, which were believed to have been consumed all in one go.’

Nesting boxes: Golf balls can also be used and re-purposed for positive reasons. An increasingly popular use of the ball, is to encourage nesting hens to lay eggs.

Plants, trees and shrubs

Trees: It’s not uncommon for golfers to knock their golf balls into the branches or nooks of trees. However, one gentleman was very surprised to have discovered a golf ball embedded in the trunk of a tree. According to the telegraph.co.uk, the ball ‘was discovered when Richard Mitchell, greenkeeper at the Eaton club in Norwich, felled the conifer and cut it into pieces, only to find the ball perfectly encased in the wood. It has been sent to craftsman and former golf captain Jim Cook who will preserve the wood.’

Cactus: Another unusual golf ball discovery featured by the telegraph.co.uk, was of this golf ball, which was ‘pictured stuck on a cactus during the second round of the Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Arizona.’ Although it is not massively uncommon to see golf balls stuck in cacti surrounding American golf courses; for this golf ball to have landed and balanced itself so precariously on top of the cactus, was astounding!

Photo credit: BCFC/Shutterstock 

Beaches and islands

One blogger, Mark Grant, discovered the golf ball pictured below washed up on his local beach.

He commented:

‘Unfortunately, due to its westerly aspect and proximity to mainland Asia, my local beach receives quite a lot of rubbish from China, Taiwan and even as far away as Vietnam. There are two regional ocean currents mainly responsible* for the delivery of this rubbish on my local beach: 1) the Taiwan Warm Current (TWC); and 2) the Kuroshio Current.’

However, what he discovered about the golf ball, was indeed far more interesting that simply ‘finding a golf ball in golf loving Asia.’ The ball had been ‘stamped with Pebble Creek Golf Links—a famous golf course in California USA, which is over 10,000 km away.’ Although there is a high probability that the golfer who misplaced this ball had travelled to a nearer course before losing it; there is also the distinct possibility that, owing to the fact that ‘golf balls can float in saltwater, the ball could have floated across the ocean to end up on the local beach.’

Photo credit: Fernando Jose V. Soares/Shutterstock 

A similar picture was taken by photographer, Christopher Seufert at Ridgevale Beach at Chatham, Cape Cod. Captured with a Nikon E7900 camera; this stray golf ball was found with shells fixed to its outer casing. 

Rivers, Lakes and Seas

Whale: In 2009, a washed up whale made headlines following scientists discovering that it had ingested a range of debris (amongst which, golf balls were included), when attempting to identify the cause of death. Although, it was noted in the Mail that, ‘Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Fisheries have ruled out the debris as the cause of death.’ It was noted that, ‘it is not unusual to find debris inside the stomachs of the whale as they scoop up sediment from the ocean's floor. They filter the debris through baleen.’

Loch Ness

Planets!

Mars: Far-fetched, we know! Many news sites reported a golf ball was found on Mars. However, the spherical object was unfortunately not a golf ball left by an extra-terrestrial or astronaut. As revealed in an article in 2014 on Discovery News, the ‘perfect-looking sphere which was sitting proudly on a flat rock surface, is another fascinating rock; a spherical Mars rock.’ The article explained how ‘at first glance, the object appears to be an old cannonball or possibly a dirty golf ball. However, knowing that Mars is somewhat lacking in the 16th Century battleship and golf cart departments, scientists knew there was likely another answer.’

Feature image credit: Chris Stoneborn/Shutterstock