"Super Fiendish and Killers" have filled most of my mornings over the last six months. These Soduko puzzles plus a run through of all the free web based papers has usually left me in dire need of physical exercise during the afternoon hours. So some days I have enjoyed isolated scrambles, inland over the western Algarve and over the cliffs/beaches stretching from Vale de Boi to Cape Vicente. "Magnificient" is the only word that describes these adventures.
Of course on other afternoons during the week I have wandered round the golf course extremes and helped to restore nature by removing the "white" spherical objects that I have found in the trees, bushes and other hazards.
Actually my golf ball retrieval talents have been known over many years. Once in a while my fellow golfers enjoy receiving a "free lunch" bag perched on their car bonnets leaning against the windscreen. Others simply go to the local Charity Shops to replenish their stocks
Of course there is considerable variety, Calloway, Taylormade, Titleist, Srixon etc.etc. of balls. Some apparently have a 324 dimple configuration and others 338 dimples which imparts a different penetrating traject,ory. Also those golfers with a slow swing should buy balls of a lower compression. Good for them.
With nothing better to do over the last 6 months, I have for the first time, recorded each week the number of balls recovered. With an average of some 55 balls per week, the total of retrieved balls is close to an astonishing 1,500 golf balls. These balls cost some 20/30 euros per dozen when new, which amounts to a average of some 6000 euros being thrown away into the rough on my course every year.
There are some 70 golf courses scattered around Portugal, 40 odd in the Algarve. So if my numbers for balls recovered is simply halved this would mean that a sum of some 210,000 euros is spent on new balls every year to cover those on average that are lost on all Portuguese courses.
My current 6 month haul has been re-distributed to 4 different charity shops. Let us hope they get a fair return when they offer the balls back onto the fairways.
One last remark. Balls don't float. Hence the number of balls actually lost is of course much higher.
