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In 1986, we moved to our new home on the golf course at The Country Club of Louisiana. In my leisure time, I would walk through the adjoining vacant lots in search of golf balls. I am an avid golfer and ball hunting is a carry over from the days I caddied in the early 1940’s.

My first logo ball was “Big Glenn” and to this day, I still don’t know who he is. One of my first goals was to get a logo starting with “Z”. As the collection grew, I really got hooked. Many asked if it was the largest collection or was it a Guinness Record. I found out that Guinness did not have such a category in their records. In 1997, I submitted the collection of 38,554 golf balls to Guinness, along with a lot of supporting data and they accepted it as a new category and record. Since then, I have been updating it on a yearly basis.




	Ted Hoz


In 1986, we moved to our new home on the golf course at The Country Club of Louisiana. In my leisure time, I would walk through the adjoining vacant lots in search of golf balls. I am an avid golfer and ball hunting is a carry over from the days I caddied in the early 1940’s. My first logo ball was “Big Glenn” and to this day, I still don’t know who he is. One of my first goals was to get a logo starting with “Z”. As the collection grew, I really got hooked. Many asked if it was the largest collection or was it a Guinness Record. I found out that Guinness did not have such a category in their records. In 1997, I submitted the collection of 38,554 golf balls to Guinness, along with a lot of supporting data and they accepted it as a new category and record. Since then, I have been updating it on a yearly basis.

		Early in collecting, I joined the Golf Collectors Society and obtained the addresses of other ball collectors. I started trading with many and over the years have obtained the collections of a number of members, who for various reasons, decided to quit collecting. The largest was a collection that had been on display at the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame when it was in Pinehurst. These acquired collections contained many unique, obsolete and rare logos. I am always trading and looking for new logos. Through the internet, I have contacted many collectors and made many trades. I frequently visit golf ball recycling companies and sort through thousands of balls in search for one I don’t have. I also obtain a lot of balls from many friends who are constantly saving them for me. When I first started collecting, storing the balls was easy. I put them in a big basket. As the collection grew, I designed and built cabinets that would minimize the space needed to display and store the balls. This turned out to be quite a challenge. I like wood working and building the cabinets was for the most part enjoyable. However, each drawer holding the balls needed a hole for the ball to sit in. I have built 14 cabinets which display and store 75,710 balls. A location number is assigned to each ball and listed on the computer. Retrieving any ball is quite simple and fast. Looking back, the cabinets turned out real nice; however, drilling 75,710 holes was quite a job! Another challenge was preparing a list of the logos and pertinent data. I was welcomed to the world of computers (which I was afraid of). Early attempts were frustrating and later discarded. I now have an excellent computer program. In addition to storing all the pertinent data, I have a digital camera connected to the computer and take a photo of each logo. The photos can be printed individually or in various groups. Before I had the photos, when I obtained a logo, I would check it with the spread sheet. If I had one with the same name, I would have to retrieve the ball and see if it was the same. This is necessary, because many different logos have the same name. Now when I get a new logo I can easily retrieve the picture of those with the same name and readily determine if they are different. Having the ability to store the photo in the computer also allows me to store balls that I do not wish to display in boxes at a remote location. Golf ball collecting is a hobby that I really enjoy and for the last 20 years has been a full time job. Probably, other than the time, the space needed to store and display a large number of balls is the biggest detriment to collectors. I know of several collectors who stop due to space limitations. I remember one collector telling me he had to stop because his wife refused to let him use another room! Many collectors limit their collecting to specific items. Although a golf ball is fairly small, they can take up a lot of space! My collection consists of 78,562 different logos, plus 18,335 duplicates for a total of 96,897 golf balls. Included are 15,512 golf course logos, 1,145 signature balls, 3,694 brand balls, 4820 golf tournaments and 53,391 non-golf logos. If all the balls I have (no duplicates) were placed in a line side by side, they would extend 2.5 miles. Their total weight is six tons.