SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - In the United States alone, more than 800,000 golf balls are lost every single day. Sacramento Elks Lodge No. 6 has a golf club that collects those golf balls. Members clean and sort the balls into plastic bags, each holding 100 balls, which the club sells to a resale outlet at 20 cents per ball.

Elks 6 Exalted Ruler Rob Moore and Lecturing Knight Aaron Jefferson recently checked in on the 13,000 golf balls that will bring in $2,840 for the Elks 6 Golf Club Scholarship Fund.

Last year, the Elks golf club raised $3,000 through this effort and the money was used to fund two scholarships. The club awards scholarships to the top female and male high school golfers from a local high school. Last year, there was no outstanding male golfer, so the funds were divided between the top two female golfers.

At present, the club has 13,000 golf balls sorted and ready for delivery, which is worth $2,840. 

Club representatives estimate that there are another 25,000 golf balls to clean, sort and bag, which would bring in about $5,000 more. This past February, the club raised $1,240, and in July, another $1,800. 

The golf club is now deciding whether to offer more scholarships or increase the amount of each award.

“We already have $3,040 set aside for this year’s scholarships,” said Past Exalted Ruler Bruce Synhorst, the Elks 6 Golf Club scholarship chair.

Approximately 300 million golf balls are sold in the U.S. each year, driven by both recreational players and professional tournaments, according to imarc.com. North America holds the largest share of the global golf ball market at 35 percent. In 2022, the global export market was led by Chinese Taipei, which shipped golf balls valued at $295 million, 31.3 percent of the world’s total, according to imarc.com.

Elks members hope that golfers keep losing those 800,000 balls every day; they still have a pickup truck full of balls waiting to be cleaned and sold. Moore and Jefferson both chanted, “Hit a ball into the water or lose it in the rough; you’re helping a golfing scholar go to college!”

Anyone who has unwanted golf balls can call Elks 6’s office at 916-422-6666 and leave their name and phone number. A golf club member will call them to make arrangements to pick up the golf balls.