Rich Lerner of The Golf Channel had a nice, to-the-point interview with Pete and Alice Dye concerning the inspiration behind the island green, the famed 17th at TPC Sawgrass.

I’m nearly certain Rich said divers find 155,000 balls in the basin surrounding the 17th and that the public plays 40,000 rounds a year on the course.

By comparison, I came across this: Brian McCallen’sTop 100 Courses You Can Play,published in 1999, makes reference to a 1998 report inGolf Journalthat stated divers dredge up 120,000 balls at the 17th with roughly 40,000 rounds per year.

So, if we take these numbers at face value, the only conclusion — as the number of rounds is the same in both reports — is that, collectively, as golfers, we’re getting worse.

(Parenthetically, I add, this cries out for further examination. When balls are retrieved, does the count include the ones dumped to the right of the 16th green, as the two greens aren’t very far from each other? How closely are the balls counted? McCallen’s citation uses the word "approximately." Then there’s the issue of what becomes of those balls. Either way, the numbers do seem to be going the wrong way.) — Robert Lohrer