Well, if you hook one into the gorse bush and after 5 minutes of searching forced to drop another, perhaps only a few shots. But it could live in that bush for hundreds of years. It can take anywhere between 100 and 1,000 years for a modern golf ball to biodegrade. This is very bad news for the environment, considering that 300 million balls are lost or thrown away in the US alone.
When a modern golf ball disolves potentially hazardous toxins from heavy metals such as zinc, become attached to ground sediment, poisoning nearby flora and fauna. How do golfers feel about the environmental legacy being left behind by their golf balls?
Should the govering bodies of golf be negotiating with leading brands to introduce a new generation of environmentally friendly golf balls fit for the 21 st Century? --------------------------------------------------