Why a cooperative of golf ball divers?

GolfBallDivers.com is owned and run by the Golf Ball Divers Alliance LCA. We’re a group of independent divers who – believe it or not – actually love the hard, dirty and often dangerous work of retrieving the millions of golf balls lost each year in the lakes and ponds of America’s golf courses. And now we've formed America's first cooperative (or co-op) of golf ball divers.  

Cooperatives are a proven way to help independent businesses stay strong and independent. In fact, there are now somewhere around 30,000 cooperatives in the United States with over 350,000 members. They’re helping independent businesses in just about every industry you can think of – from cranberry farmers (Ocean Spray) and craft beer brewers (Independent Brewers Alliance) to hardware stores (Ace and TrueValue). That’s because co-ops work. Not just for their members, but for their customers too. 

How the co-op works for both of us

In a word our co-operative (like most co-ops) is about “fairness.” Fairness for our customers, because by selling direct to you we can help make the game you love easier and more affordable. And fairness for us. As owners of our own cooperative, collecting, processing and selling the balls we collect ourselves, we get fairer payment for the work we do, and more security for our families. So, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Our golf balls go even further than that

As something a little extra, every used golf ball you buy from us helps enrich the lives of people with disabilities by offering them jobs, opportunity and independence. That’s because we’ve built our new state-of-the art golf ball processing facility at Lapeer Team Work’s GO Industries. GO has been offering all kinds of support and training to people with disabilities for over 50 years. GO is also pioneering a new vocational training model for people with disabilities. Learn more.