Have you ever gone to a range or the practice area at a golf club and noticed how many people are working on their driving? Despite the fact drivers may be needed only 14 times on a standard 18-hole course, they have a particular fascination with golfers, particularly hackers or those who play only a few times a year. There is something fantastic about standing on a mat or on the grass and blasting away to see how far a ball can be driven. If it goes straight and true and beyond 200 yards, it's a great feeling of pride. If it’s sliced or hooked, it’s the surest way to, well, drive you crazy.

On October 11, 2000 at the Invensys Classic in Las Vegas, NV team Titleist introduced what would become one of the industry’s most popular golf balls. The fledgling project dubbed Pro V1 (“Pro” for professional, “V” for the veneer layer of Urethane and “1” since it was the first) was put into play by nearly 50 professionals that week including eventual champion Billy Andrade. On the heels of its record-setting success, a second model – the Pro V1x – was introduced three years later in 2003.

Photo cred: http://nichehacks.com/ Here’s an idea to have some fun watching the U.S. Open next month. Get together with a bunch of friends and put some money into a “pool” in which the winner collects the entire share. I’ve been involved in golf pools for several years, usually involving 20 teams, each investing $10 a piece. We each pick four players, but to make it interesting we automatically eliminate the major contenders such as Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. These two will automatically be considered favorites to win, along with Jason Day. The winning team is the one with the lowest score.

Russell Knox proved one thing last Saturday at TPC Sawgrass: whether you’re a seasoned professional or picking up a club for the first time, hitting a golf ball over water is tough. Standing on the tee of the Stadium Course’ famed 17th hole, Knox was a few strokes off the lead and feeling pretty good. That all disappeared when the Scotsman donated three, shiny new golf balls to the pond surrounding the infamous island green. His eventual sextuple-bogey 9 (which sadly isn’t the worse score in history on that hole), followed by a closing bogey on 18, dropped him from inside the top-10 to a tie for 40th. One ball, two balls, three balls more; watch as 17 destroys your score.

It’s PLAYERS Championship week and that means a steady diet of golf the way Pete Dye intended it to be: challenging, dramatic and anything but boring. Dye’s Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass has a history as unique as its infamous 17th hole. Back in the early 1980s, then PGA TOUR commissioner Deane Beman bought 415 acres of wooded wetlands and swamp for $1. He then commissioned Dye to design a golf course that favored no particular player and focused heavily on spectator viewing. Dye delivered: the Stadium Course has a wide variety of short and long par-3s, par-4s and par-5s. Oh, and that island green? We can thank Dye’s wife, Alice, for that amazing golf hole, it was her idea after all.

Did you know that golf is one of the country’s most popular sports? Every year more than 24 million Americans play 455 million-plus rounds of golf. That equates to roughly 20 rounds per golfer annually. Did you also know that golfers lose more than two golf balls per round on average? It’s ok to admit; we’ve all been there waiving sadly as our golf ball takes a hard right turn and splashes down in the pond just off the 18th green. Losing a golf ball can be an emotional experience. You may have had your first birdie with that golf ball. You might have used it to shoot your best round ever. Heck, people even frame their hole-in-one golf balls if they don’t lose it first.

Bryson DeChambeau was all the rage during the first three rounds at Augusta National. One of only five golfers to win the U.S. Amateur and NCAA individual title in the same year – joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ryan Moore (pretty solid company) – DeChambeau captivated audiences with his unique approach to the game. The physics major is a disciple of Homer Kelly’s “The Golfing Machine,” uses irons and wedges all the same length, and relies on science to score well. So when he turned pro shortly after The Masters it wasn’t much of a shock when he signed with Bridgestone. After all, Bridgestone’s golf balls are designed using so much science it’d make Bill Nye jealous.

It’s the one piece of equipment we use on every shot, yet most don’t give it a whole lot of thought. Golf balls seem so simple, but have you ever wondered how they actually work? Now, before we get into the science of flight, let’s take a quick peek into the history of golf balls. After all, you have to understand where you’ve been to appreciate where you’re going.

It’s here. The tradition unlike any other is finally upon us. Dubbed the unofficial start of spring, the Masters began in 1934. A year later, Gene Sarazen put Augusta National on the map with his notorious “shot heard ‘round the world” – a double-eagle on the par-5 15th that propelled him into the 36-hole playoff he would eventually win. Let’s pause for a moment and let the familiar tune of Masters week raise the hairs on your arms. Yes, the Masters and all its azalea-filled beauty is set to bloom on our television screens in a few short days. So in honor of this masterful week, the team here at LostGolfBalls put together our list of top-five Masters moments.