The siren call of the water hazard

By Times staff

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 28, 2000

Diving for dollars Ball retriever extraordinaire Mike Gerstner profits from your misery on the golf course. Never mind the gators and snakes lurking about.

A great debate rages as to whether a recycled or "experienced" golf ball is any good.

The snooty golfer, the purist, will not touch a ball that has come from the deep, arguing that the balls are waterlogged and do not perform as well as new ones.

To which Mike Gerstner replies, "That's complete garbage. The worst thing that affects a golf ball isn't water, it's temperature. In the water, a ball stays within 20 degrees all the time. The very worst thing you can do to a golf ball is put it in the trunk of your car where it's like 150 degrees."

The bias against used golf balls is what fuels the $1.5-billion new ball industry.

Other golfers see the submerged golf ball in a more metaphysical light.

Steve Zawacki, who learned the game playing municipal courses in Largo and Clearwater and later went onto a staff job with the PGA Tour, champions the theory of free will.

This theory holds that once a golf ball has tasted the sweet desperation of a water hazard, it becomes addicted to the experience and is bound to return there. A water ball, once recovered, cannot be trusted.

Actually, this is more than a theory. Empirical evidence abounds, amid the ker-splashes and mighty groans that resonate across area courses.

"If you, the player, hit the ball into the water, that ball obviously likes the water and therefore should stay there," Zawacki said. "If you can reach in and pick it up with your hand, that's one thing. But if it's gone, well, as they would say in Scotland, "Take your medicine, laddie, and move on.' "

-- Logan D. Mabe, Times staff writer

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