Man drowns while diving for golf balls

Sep 27, 2009

By Rachel Hatzipanagos / Sun Sentinel
September 24, 2009

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — Jerry Gunderson started diving for golf balls in 1953, when he was 19. On Saturday, during a dive, he lost his life. He was 75.

"I don’t know why he did it; it’s high risk, but he just loved it," said his wife, Judith Gunderson. "He always said that’s the way he would go."





Jerry Gunderson, whose passion for diving for golf balls led to the founding of a chain of seven golf-supply stores, was found dead in the center of the lake at the Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla., on Saturday.

Gunderson, who was wearing scuba gear, drowned, officials said.

One of his sons died while diving for golf balls in a lake 27 years ago.

"I lost my brother to the water, too," said Jerry Gunderson’s other son, Marc, 53.

Divers looking for golf balls swim in near-complete darkness, in territory where alligators and other critters lurk. The payoff can be thousands of golf balls, which are resold to golf-supply stores.

They don’t like to reveal how much money they make from the sales because it’s a competitive business, Marc Gunderson said. But for those who dive, it’s a passion not everyone can understand.

"I wish I could answer why," said Gunderson, who used to dive for golf balls himself. "I’ve asked myself that question over the last few days."

Jerry Gunderson, who grew up in Palm Beach County, Fla., started retrieving, collecting and reselling golf balls soon after his first dive as a teenager.

At first, it was the simple act of fishing out the golf balls in a course in the 1950s, washing them, and reselling them. He built a Deerfield Beach-based chain of golf-supply stores called International Golf.

He sold the business a few years ago and worked as a freelance diver for smaller companies.

Reselling the golf balls can be serious business, said Phil Cherchio, one of the partners of the Birdie Golf Ball Store in Margate. He said he hires several freelance divers he sends to golf courses with which he has contracts. He too declined to say how much he pays each diver.

Even the most experienced divers have accidents. In the darkness, Jerry Gunderson likely blacked out and lost his oxygen supply, his son said.

Still, he would not have had it any other way, his family said.

"Diving is peaceful, along with a way to make a good living," Marc Gunderson said. 'It was his love.'"