Slowly, custom Bridgestone one of Canada's finest golfing destination faded. One night, the guys were working a course, says Matt, "and the security guy is sitting there smoking a joint, talking to us." When the poachers were finished, they offered the guy $20 to give them a ride back to their truck. The pros call poachers by a variety of names, "Nighthawks," "Captain Midnights" and "Nighthunters," and they are universally reviled. And because poachers are as common on golf courses as temper tantrums, the golf ball retrieval industry has become fraught with competition and secrecy. Paul Lovelace, a diver and owner of Golf Ball Paul's in Kansas City, Kan. Fred Willis, owner of Golf Plus, a golf ball recycler, in Dallas. Playing with a ball that suits your style and ability perfectly will give you surprising advantages. Given that golf is widely played by recreational athletes who do not necessarily have a strict season of play, you will likely continue playing your regular rounds of golf even in your "off-season" training periods. Of course, on any given day, a golf ball diver is likely to encounter an equally dangerous threat, which is why Parker wears heavy work gloves.

And except in Arizona and Palm Beach, where the plastic-lined, man-made water hazards are considered the cushiest in the business, most golf ball diving is in zero-visibility blackwater. After some initial fun and games, and your child shows some more interest in really playing golf and learning, then you can start introducing more to your trips to the course or practice range. Just make sure your child has the opportunity to hit some balls and enjoy the activity. In addition, because the curing reaction is easy to initiate and proceeds quite readily at room temperature, epoxy resins make very useful surface coatings. Still, they showed a kind of work ethic that would make a mother proud. Matt, for example, once came upon two of the guys in his crew ("both really big") "beating the shit out of each other" over who got to work the edge. Many ponds are littered with broken bottles, which can cut a diver's hands to shreds and leave him out of work for months. He had just run out of air in his tank when he became entangled in a roll of barbed wire. On another occasion, he found his crew beating the living daylights out of another poaching crew, rivals who'd beaten them to a pond.

Norm Spahn. And if you can't see your fingers, you certainly can't see your pressure gauge, not to mention the snapping turtles and snakes and gators lying on the bottom of the pond. On June 11, 2001, Emmett Clive Willis III, a diver who'd been certified for only three months, died while retrieving balls from the pond at the 15th hole of the Westport Country Club in Hickory, N.C. Everyone knows of someone, or has heard of someone, who has died. Sure, there are the retirees who walk the golf course at night, skimming balls as they go (a retiree in Atlanta once tried to sell Spahn 42,000 balls), but it's guys like "Mark" and "Matt," two former poachers who agreed to speak for this article on condition of anonymity, who inspire the greatest venom. Mark, 27, and Matt, 31, poachers who worked in the Southwest before recently going legit, aren't the kind of boys you'd bring home to Mom. "I just chilled at home. Selling the balls was no problem; Matt had four uncles in the business. But Nighthawks understand at least one of the fundamentals of the business. Even Parker, as he makes the rounds of the Dallas Athletic Club, deliberately tells golfers who ask that he's toting 2,000 balls in his golf cart; in truth, he's got about 3,000. But at least he's willing to talk to a reporter.

Spahn should know. He's suffered three venomous water moccasin bites, and now carries a snakebite kit with him, as does Parker, who's also been bitten three times. If Spahn needs any more reminders of the inherent dangers, he can glance at his left arm, which still bears the scars of an alligator bite he suffered four years ago at the Sawgrass Country Club. Still, close calls are preferable to the fate that other divers have suffered. There are a few rules that apply specifically to wet weather golf which can make playing in the rain a lot less cumbersome. No one wants anyone else to know just how many balls a certain golf course will yield. Quick, rough strokes will yield the best results. In chicane a ball had to be driven with the fewest possible strokes to a church or garden door. The object of the game is to advance the ball around the course using as few strokes as possible. When they first started, they'd get paid 20 to 25 cents a ball. I travel every year with bowling balls, softball bags & golf clubs and I Iove this break in charges I will finally get as a Gold member or for excessive baggage.