A former police officer is now forging a lucrative career scuba diving in water hazards at golf courses to collect lost balls by the thousands, navigating disturbed wildlife and wayward tee shots to sell them across Europe for upwards of 10p a pop.
John Colenutt, 44, who served in the Metropolitan Police Service for 15 years before starting his business GolfBalls4You, now services around 70 golf courses across the south of England and Wales, recovering tonnes of lost balls that have been chipped into ponds, rivers and lakes. He had been toying with the idea of setting up a golf ball diving business ever since he started selling second hand balls on eBay for some extra cash while studying at university.
He finally took the plunge after going on a career break in 2015 and training to scuba dive in Spain. But diving for golf balls in the UK is nothing like the Mediterranean, as John and his team are regularly forced to break through the ice in freezing temperatures, can barely see underwater and have to contend with venomous snakes, aggressive fish and incoming golf balls.
