Stupid Golf Problems: How many balls should you have in your bag?

This week, we had Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl champion Reggie Bush on The Loop podcast to promote Bush’s United Athletes Tour, a first-of-its-kind golf league that will pit professional athletes of past and present against each other on the golf course. Bush, as you’ll hear in our interview, is a total golf sicko, as evidenced by his nearly three-minute long answer on how he grips the golf club (check out the interview here).

But, like all of us, Bush was once a beginner. He’s now a low single-digit handicap thanks to a lot of hard work, but there was once a time when he lost a ton of golf balls. Hardly surprising for a big, strong former football player who shows up to the course and swings as hard as possible.

Because of that, as Bush explained on the pod, he had to bring a TON of balls with him, a common trait among beginners. Eventually, though, you get halfway decent enough at this game, yet some part of your brain still thinks you need 25 balls stuffed in the bottom pouch of your bag, which can lead to some problems should you start playing some nicer courses and take caddies.

So that got me thinking – just how many golf balls should you have in your bag at any given time? This is obviously a very situational question, so I’ll provide some situational answers below.

You’re just starting out and you’re (mostly) riding in a cart

Bring as many as you’d like. Grab the 40 pack of Slazenger’s for $20 at Dick’s Sporting Goods and stuff ‘em all in there. You’re going to need them. Whether there’s water, woods, fescue, etc., you’re going to lose balls, and you never want to be the guy asking your buddy who plays the game well for one of his ProV1s that you’re going to immediately deposit into a lake. That’s a sinking feeling, no pun intended.

You’re getting better, and sometimes you walk

Twenty, maximum. If you’re getting better at the game and can keep it somewhat in play and break 100, under no circumstance are you going to lose 20 golf balls in a round. That’s a generous number. Fifteen is probably all you need.

You’re breaking 90, you’re getting invited to nice places and you’re taking caddies

No more than 10, and that’s a lot. Obviously, it’s somewhat course dependent. If you’re playing down in Florida and there’s water everywhere, or you’re playing a super-tight tree-lined course in the Northeast and you’re a little shaky off the tee, I get why you’d be nervous with less than 10. Especially if it’s a really nice place, maybe you’re a little on edge and it takes you a bit to settle in. You might lose three or four early and feel like you’ll soon be re-enacting the final scene of “Tin Cup.”