2025
Club member Piet Postema has a special playing partner: Bella, a highly trained Labrador Retriever. Bella isn’t just good company—she’s a master at sniffing out lost golf balls in bushes, reeds, and along water banks.
A typical day? Piet tees off, and by the second hole, Bella is off the leash. “Search!” he calls. Within seconds, she’s back with three balls in her mouth, dropping them neatly next to Piet’s push cart. On the third hole, he says “Over!” and Bella leaps across a ditch, retrieving 25 balls from the rough. By the end of the round, she’s collected 110.
Bella finds an estimated 3,500 balls each year. Piet gives away about 150 every week to fellow members—all recovered by Bella. It’s a charming routine with a serious benefit: preventing environmental harm. Lost golf balls can release microplastics and toxins as they degrade. Thanks to Bella, most are recovered before that happens. The rest are gathered during winter dredging or water hazard cleaning.
Bella’s work may look like a game, but she’s become an unexpected champion in the club’s sustainability efforts.
