Dimpled beauties

Months ago, during a morning walk on a road near the rear gate of a golf course, I saw a golf ball scale the lofty boundary fence and fall on the road, only to bounce over to the compound wall on the other side.

I thought, “Damn, wish the ball was less bouncy and had remained on the road, and I could have picked up a souvenir.”

Ever since whenever I pass that stretch, I wish another such ball scales the golf course fence and stays on the road.

I decided to slow down my pace a bit and look at the nearby trees and bushes to see if any golf ball that couldn’t scale the opposite compound wall is lurking around.

Soon it became an obsession to keep an eye for any tiny white spherical objects while traversing that particular stretch.

I doggedly pursued this for a few months, and finally the lady luck smiled.

As usual, my roving eyes were focussing on the tree bottoms and bushes and my gaze fell on a white object.

The sceptic in me thought it was too good to be true. I thought it could be a small milky white bulb with its rear portion hidden among grass blades.

But when I bent to pick it up, my joy knew no bounds. It was indeed a golf ball with all its dimples meticulously arranged.

To be honest, it was the first time I was holding a golf ball - so far, I had only seen them in photos and videos.

I hardly followed the sport, though happened to read about it in some of the PG Wodehouse books like The Heart of a Goof.

A brief nodding acquaintance with the sport happened when Tiger Woods started dominating the sports pages and it died with his inglorious exit.

Coming back to the ball, I triumphantly put it in my pocket and walked home. I washed it to remove some mud and placed it in the showcase.

This success only whetted my appetite and my gaze became more focussed during my weekend morning walks.

However, the pickings were pretty slim and quite often the 'sightings' ended in disappointments: the usual suspects were egg shells or discarded milky white bulbs. 

But it did not dishearten me and there was no let-up in the gaze.

Soon some of my sightings began bearing fruit and I began finding more golf balls.

Interestingly, once I was lucky enough to find a yellow one.

Till then I had no idea that golf balls come in any colour other than white.

Now I have a collection of six balls, enough to fill a bowl, with the yellow one having a pride of place in the middle. But the hunger to spot those white dimpled beauties is far from over.