Lake balls in the UK: rewashed, refurbished and when to pay for new

Here is the British golf ball market in two prices, both taken from the same retailer on the same day. At one British online golf retailer in mid-September, a new dozen Callaway Chrome Soft was £44.99. A dozen Titleist Pro V1 recovered from water, washed and sold as Grade A, was £27.99. The second ball costs a little over £2.30 each, and if you lose three a round it is worth thinking about seriously.

Whether the cheaper ball is a sensible saving or false economy depends on two things: what exactly you are buying, since “lake ball” covers several quite different products, and what you are using it for.

Three products sold under one name

Read listings carefully, because British retailers sell three distinct things side by side, often with similar pictures.

Recovered or rewashed balls have come out of a pond, ditch or rough, been cleaned and sorted into grades. The ball itself is untouched: original cover, original paint, original dimples.

Refurbished or refinished balls have been stripped, repainted and restamped. That process can alter the cover thickness and the dimple pattern, and with them how the ball flies. On that retailer’s lake ball page, for instance, a dozen Callaway Chrome Soft balls listed as refurbished were £26.99, against £44.99 for new, sitting in the same list as the rewashed Pro V1s.

Mixed practice balls are the lower grades of assorted brands, sold by the bag for short-game work and hitting into a net.

The retailer’s own copy is clear that it also offers refinished and recycled balls for golfers after the lowest price. That is a legitimate product, but it is not the same as a recovered premium ball, and a listing that says only “recycled” could be either.

How the grades work

Grading describes the cover, and only the cover. The retailer explains its grades this way: Pearl grade balls are virtually flawless, with minimal or no sign of use and close to new; Grade A balls have slight blemishes but still offer good flight and durability; lower grades are best kept for practice. Its range comes from suppliers such as Second Chance, alongside Reload for refurbished balls.

Prices on that page on the day this article was updated give a sense of the ladder:

Product	Quantity	Price
Titleist Pro V1, Grade A rewashed	12 balls	£27.99
Callaway Chrome Soft, refurbished	12 balls	£26.99
Titleist Pro V1x, Grade B lake balls	50 balls	£69.99
Srixon AD333, Grade B lake balls	100 balls	£79.99
Mixed practice lake balls	100 balls	£69.99

For comparison, a new dozen Srixon AD333 was £22.99 at the same shop, about £1.92 a ball, against roughly 80p a ball for the Grade B version bought by the hundred. The percentage saving is similar, but in pounds it is small: around £13 across a dozen. For a golfer who rarely loses a ball, new balls of one model may simply be the easier buy.

What water does to a modern ball

The old wound balls of decades past soaked up water through their rubber windings and went dead quickly. A modern solid-core ball with an ionomer or urethane cover is far better sealed, though not perfectly. Performance falls away gradually over a long immersion, and the first thing to change is compression, which shows up as a slightly shorter, duller-feeling ball rather than a dramatic failure.

The difficulty for a buyer is that nobody knows how long a particular ball spent in the water. A ball that went into the pond at the 7th last month and one that sat there for two winters can grade identically. That is why the seller’s reputation, published grade standards and a returns policy matter more than a saving of a few pence per ball.

When second-hand balls are the right choice

If you lose more than a couple a round. Heathland gorse, parkland ditches, burns on links courses: British golf is well supplied with places to lose a ball. Putting a £3.75 ball into them twice a round is a tax on your ball-striking, and the money would do more good as part of a lesson.

For practice. A bag of practice-grade balls is ideal for chipping and short-game sessions at the club’s practice area, where volume matters more than spin.

In winter. Soft, muddy fairways, frost delays and winter golf in general cost balls, and cold weather dulls any ball’s performance. Nobody’s premium urethane cover is earning its keep on a 4°C January morning.

For beginners and juniors. Anyone new to the game, or playing a first round on a nine-hole course, swings more freely when losing a ball costs almost nothing.

When to pay for new

In competition. For a medal round or the club championship, play one new model for the whole round. Mixing grades adds variation to exactly the shots where you want none. Some committees also adopt The R&A’s Model Local Rule G-4, the one ball rule, which requires every ball you play during the round to be the same brand and model as a single entry on the List of Conforming Golf Balls. Committees can also adopt Model Local Rule G-3, which requires any ball you play to be on that list.

When spin really matters. As your handicap falls, the difference between a fresh premium cover and a tired one becomes noticeable, especially on wedge shots from the rough and approaches into firm greens in a dry summer.

One model, whatever you pay

The most useful decision about golf balls has nothing to do with price. Pick one model and play it all season.

A golfer who alternates between three models has three sets of wedge distances and three putting speeds, and masters none of them. Buying one model second-hand in bulk is often cheaper and more consistent than new balls chosen on offer each month. If your chosen model comes as rewashed Grade A, you can have both consistency and the saving.

Where to buy used golf balls in the UK

Golf retailers with a lake ball range. Some stock graded, rewashed and refurbished balls next to new ones, with grade descriptions on the page. That makes like-for-like comparisons easy.

Specialist recovery companies. Brands such as Second Chance supply graded balls through retailers. Whoever you buy from, look for a published grading standard, photographs of representative balls and a clear returns policy.

Your own club. Ask in the pro shop whether the club sells balls recovered from its own water. Where it does, they are often the freshest you will find, since they went in during the current season.

New balls at a discount. When a new generation launches, the outgoing model often drops sharply. At the same retailer in September, Bridgestone’s 2023 Tour B RX was £24.99 a dozen against a £44.99 original price.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any retailer or brand named here and earns no commission.

Why ball recovery makes sense

Clearing water hazards is a practical job for a course, since a pond full of balls is a maintenance problem, and a golf ball does not break down if left where it landed. Every ball that is recovered, graded and played again is one fewer sitting at the bottom of the lake at the 12th. It is one of the few purchases in golf where the cheaper option is also the tidier one.

A sensible ball policy

• Practice and winter: practice-grade or mixed lake balls by the bag.
• Casual rounds when you lose several: Grade A or Pearl of one model.
• Competitions: new balls, one model, checked against any one ball rule.
• Know the difference between rewashed and refurbished before you pay.
• Compare against discounted new balls; at the budget end the saving in pounds is small.
• Mark every ball you play. Everyone else is using a white one too.

How this page was put together

Prices were taken in September 2026 from Clubhouse Golf (UK). Panxis has no commercial link with this retailer.