Linda and I moved into our current residence on North Balboa Drive in Maricopa, AZ in March of 2012. The house sits about 200 yards from the silver tee box on the sixth hole of The Duke Golf Course. Our neighbors to our north get most of the golf ball traffic but we get our share. Linda and I did a quick audit of our collection so far and here is what we found.

In the 22 months since we moved in, we have collected 163 balls. That is 7.4 balls per month which works out to roughly one ball every four days. What I found the most interesting is the distribution of brand names. Here is a quick look.

Here is my question. Do errant Titleist balls end up in our yard by far the most because they are the worst balls, or is it as I suspect because they are simply the most popular? Seems nothing, not even shelling out four times the cash for better balls, keeps you in the fairway. Does this albeit anecdotal piece of data give you pause, and cause, to rethink before ponying up for an expensive ball? As for me, I am going to be teeing off soon with one of my new used Titlelists.

Owen

P.S. In the chart above, if we collected five or less of your brand of golf ball, you got lumped as ‘other’ but more than five and you got your own category.

P.S.S. Here is the count by brand:
Titlelist 55
Callaway 23
Pinnacle 10
Nike 14
Top Flight 16
Precept 2
Dixon 2
Srixon 3
Dunlop 4
Noodle 5
Taylormade 5
WIlson 7
Bridgestone 8
(Not worth mentioning as there was only one ball per brand) 9