More usually, the link between divers and golf balls is of searches in standard course lakes for balls lost by golfing amateurs.
Hundreds of balls may be recovered but the reward per ball remains low.
In County Donegal’s Lough Salt, a 1.6km long, 0.4km wide lake at the bottom of Lough Salt mountain, the situation could not be more different.
There it is thought that the legendary Tom Morris, a four-time Open champion in the 1860s, drove just 20 or so gutta percha balls into the lake for fun in 1891, when he was designing the nearby Rosapenna golf course.
In recent weeks divers have mounted searches for the balls, which are thought to be worth many thousands of pounds each, based on previous auction results plus the added magic of the Morris connection.
Now, however, they have been ordered by Donegal County Council to stop diving in the lough, on account of its role as a local drinking water supply.
Submerged for the past 121 years, the balls look set to remain untouched unless a new arrangement can be reached for controlled searches to resume.
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