Mystery of the mudded golf balls

First I saw one, then a second one, then another one. As the river level got lower over the dry summer days and months, I would spot more golf balls along shore as I paddled. Most of them were across from Bridgeview Moorage. I didn't know enough about golf to imagine someone could be driving balls from clear across the channel. Was someone up above on the dike playing golf? That notion seemed a crazy irony, since I was one of a gang of rabble-rousers who had stopped the development of a tournament golf course on the island in 1989.

I could not resist collecting each and every one that I saw. Some are white, some are yellow. Most of them I was able to pry out of the mud with my paddle, but a few were far enough from the water that I had to get out and squish through the mud.

I started asking people and learned that yes, a number of houseboaters -- including my neighbors two doors away -- do in fact drive golf balls off their decks for amusement. Were these golf balls worth anything? This neighbor pays his grandchildren 10 cents for each one they find when he takes them across the channel in his boat for golf-ball hunts. He offered me the same 10 cents for mine.

One day -- the jackpot day -- I found 13. I now have a total of 28. I thought my hard-pried collection was worth more to me than $2.80 so I have kept them.

A few weeks ago I bought a copy of The Houseboat Book by Barbara Flanagan. It looked quite wonderful, and besides, one of the houses in it is my neighbors'. Portland was one of the places where the author did a lot of research because, it turns out, Portland has more houseboats than anywhere in North America (pg. 146).

I almost rolled on the floor laughing when I read this description on page 76: "In Portland, Ron Schmidt has three platforms... on the deck, Schmidt has installed a patch of artificial turf to help him drive used golf balls across the river." Was a certain Ron Schmidt the originator of most of my golf balls? I googled him and discovered he lives at a different moorage at least 10 miles away.

I could email my friends who live at Bridgeview Moorage to ask who might have driven all these golf balls I unearthed, but I think I won't -- it will be more fun to learn some day serendipitously.

In the meantime, the river has gone even lower and I've not found a single other golf ball since the jackpot day a few weeks ago.

Not only is there a mystery golfer -- what causes the golf balls to land and stay stuck along just a few waterlines along shore and nowhere else?

UPDATE: As of October 19, 2012, I have thus far found 54 golf balls -- 11 yesterday.