Sometimes there are happy accidents in life that turn into something very cool. Such is the case for the above photo and the story behind it. The ball markers you see are on the roof of our portable storage unit at work that we refer to as the bird cage.
We store it in the cart barn over night and wheel it out to the bag drop every morning. One day a few months ago, one of our staff members put a couple random plastic ball markers on the roof of the bird cage. The slates being a perfect place to put the markers. It started with a handful, and then over time it started to become something more than that.
The bird cage is positioned so that pretty much everybody playing that day will walk by it at some point. Members and guests started to notice our small collection and would reach into their golf bags and bring out ball markers from their home club or places they had picked them up.
The only problem with this was to start the process we needed the #1 course in the country, Pine Valley. We asked one of our members who was going to be visiting PV to bring us back a ball marker. He was unable to locate a plastic marker, but gave us a very nice metal one.
We promptly glued it to the bird cage and began our top 100 collection in order based on the most recent Golf Magazine Top 100 list. Pictured above are the top 4, we are waiting to acquire 5(Oakmont) before we glue down 6(ANGC). We will then need 7(Sand Hills) before we glue down 8 & 9, which we already have. We don't have 10 or 11 yet, but we do have 12 to 15 so our collection is well on its way.
We started gluing them to the roof for two reasons. One was space since obviously the roof slates didn't provide us enough room to get 100+ markers on it. The second reason was more sinister. We actually had a little bit of theft we were trying to stop.
I was at work when the first theft took place. I was in the cart barn and from far away I saw somebody remove one and take off in a cart. Another staff member also witnessed this and we were both a little shocked. We didn't get a very good look at the guy so trying to find him was not possible. We then tried to figure out which marker he had taken. Luckily I had the above picture from the previous week and we were able to determine he had taken Linville Golf Club, pictured in the center of the above photo. Why this guy passed over Cypress Point, Shinnecock, National and others and instead took Linville is beyond me but it did happen.
The more shocking theft occurred with two markers from Ohoopee Match Club. One small and one large, they disappeared together one day. This outraged some of our staff members. So very soon after that when a very large metal marker was acquired it was immediately glued down!
Our collection isn't exclusively ball markers. When the pro from Casa De Campo in the Dominican Republic visited, he didn't have a traditional round ball marker but instead he gave us a unique large square marker that conveniently fit into the roof slats. A poker chip from the Ocean Course at Kiawah was also added to the collection because it too fit into the roof slats.
I brought back eight ball markers from my recent trip to Florida and am excited to pick them up during my travels this summer. Our members have really gotten into it too. To the point that one very generous member actually mailed us the Shinnecock marker from NY when he heard we were looking for it. We as a staff are excited to see what it will become and just how many ball markers we can get on the roof. A random act that has now turned into something that everyone that visits the club can enjoy.
Updated photo on September 1st. We've filled the top row in 5 months and have acquired the majority of the top 50 courses in the US!
March 2023 update. We have filled up the entire side except the ones missing from the top 100. We currently have 83 of the top 100 and ball markers from 45 states and 12 countries.
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