Meet Nicky Dorfel… the Golf Ball Hunter!

Nicky Dörfel straps the oxygen tanks to his back, pulls his diving mask over his eyes and walks into the lake. He continues until he is completely underwater.

It's a competitive profession, but this is certainly one of the strangest scenes you'll ever see on a golf course.

For the next few hours, he will scour the bottom of the lake in search of lost golf balls. On a good day, he finds hundreds.

But today? Today is a great day.

It's Wednesday during the Soudal Open at Rinkven International Golf Club, near Antwerp. While Ryan Fox, Sam Horsfield, Nicolas Colsaerts and co. prepare for the tournament, Dörfel and his diving partner Martijn Doorn retrieve more than 3,500 balls from the lakes scattered across the course.

Just a normal workday for the 33-year-old Dutchman. As the owner of lake balls company Golf-Square – headquartered in Raamsdonksveer, about an hour's drive south of Amsterdam – Dörfel dives at around 170 golf courses annually, mainly in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. And he also cleans up. In an average year, he finds almost a million balls.

He and his team take the balls back to their factory, clean them, sort them by brand and condition into about 300 different types, and sell them through their website. It's a smart and well-organized business, and for Dörfel, it's the perfect combination of two of his greatest passions.

"I grew up near a golf course and from the age of twelve I was always there. I played every chance I got," he says. "When I was eighteen, I became interested in diving."

Around the same time, he worked a summer at Golfbaan Landgoed De Kurenpolder, a popular club southeast of Rotterdam. During his time there, he found hundreds of balls in the water, which planted the seed.

Two years later, in 2012, he founded Golfballennederland.nl – now Golf-Square.

What initially sounds like a side income is in reality full-time work, and hard work at that. Dörfel is on the road four days a week diving for balls, often spending several hours a day underwater. The other three days he spends cleaning and sorting the balls – a labor-intensive, manual process – before they are prepared for shipping. This is not a hobby.

His team is small but dedicated. Besides one permanent employee, he works with a team of freelance divers. His girlfriend handles logistics, administration and sales.

It's also a nice extra source of income for the golf courses. They get ten cents per ball that Dörfel retrieves from their water features, not to mention the ecological benefits of removing golf balls from the lakes. It's a win-win for everyone, even if it's often hard work.

"Usually it's really dark underwater," says Dörfel. "You can't see anything. You have to rely entirely on your sense of touch and hope you find something. It's also dangerous. Most lakes are about two meters deep, but sometimes nine or ten meters, so you need the right equipment and training."

"You don't just jump in. You have to be a qualified, experienced diver to do this work. You can easily get tangled in something, for example."

Some dives are more fruitful than others, but recently Dörfel had his most successful dive ever.

"We recently found more than 90,000 balls at Golfclub De Scherpenbergh," he laughs. "We're going back soon because we think there are still about 40,000 left. And I always enjoy diving at Golfclub Gervliet. There's a nice small lake at hole 18 where we pull out about 25,000 to 30,000 balls every year."

Of course, Dörfel doesn't only find mis-hit balls during his dives. "You'd be surprised how many golf sets are down there," he laughs. "I've also found a safe twice that was stolen during a break-in at the clubhouse. They were obviously empty and thrown in the water. You see a lot of strange things down there."

Recently, Dörfel has also been using his skills for the DP World Tour. During the aforementioned Soudal Open in Belgium, as well as the Porsche European Open at Green Eagle Golf Course near Munich and other events, the balls he retrieves are cleaned and added to the DP World Golf Ball Container.

This container, a converted twenty-foot sea container, was launched earlier this year in honor of the first season of the DP World Tour. It travels to various tournaments where spectators, players and other visitors are invited to donate their used and unwanted golf balls.

The balls are then distributed to organizations dedicated to grassroots golf, to help grow the sport worldwide.

The container, which can hold as many as 200,000 balls and will weigh nearly 12 tons when full, made its debut during the Dubai Desert Classic in January. Further stops this year include the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November.

The idea comes from DP World, the tour's title sponsor, who coordinates the initiative through its logistics expertise and global network of ports, terminals and distribution centers.

The initiative comes at the right time. Golf experienced a global resurgence due to COVID-19, and as the world slowly returns to normal, stakeholders in the sport want to continue that positive trend.

But that's easier said than done. Logistics disruptions from the pandemic have affected the golf industry in multiple ways. Manufacturers struggled to produce enough clubs and balls. In the Middle East alone, the golf apparel trade is expected to exceed $45 million by 2026, but production problems are causing import restrictions. And this is where DP World sees a role for itself.

"Global supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19 will continue to affect the import of sports and leisure items in the Middle East, including golf equipment," explains Daniel van Otterdijk, Chief Communications Officer at DP World. "With our passion to support the global golf ecosystem, combined with our leading logistics and supply chain solutions, DP World is perfectly positioned to alleviate this pressure and support the growing popularity of golf."

For Dörfel, it's mostly fun to be part of it. "When DP World called me and told me about their Golf Ball Container, I immediately wanted to participate," he says. "It's a great initiative that helps give golf balls a second life. I'm happy I could contribute my part."