Back in my early adolescence, my friends and I got our kicks by stealing golf balls off the 13th fairway at the prestigious Capilano Golf & Country Club (my friend once caddied for Sean Connery there–good golfer, good tipper, apparently). In fact, if you look at this photo, you can see the concealed slope in the fairway that enabled us to sneak out onto the course unseen from the tee. We’d sneak out from the trees at the left of the photo, behind which was a road down which we could take off on our bikes.
In Edmonton, our childhood entertainment has been taken up by the local squirrels (check out the hilarious photo):
One theory is they put the balls in nests to drive the magpies away. In any event, a ball hawk once reportedly recovered 250 balls from a single tree. Golf pro Dillon Wilder said someone spotted a ball in a tree in front of the municipal golf course’s pro shop in early June, started whacking at the branch and brought down 30 balls.
I read somewhere that squirrels forget where they store half their food for winter. Maybe the golf balls are simply more memorable?
DarrenBarefoot.com 
The same thing happens at the golf course in Kitimat, BC, except with foxes. Quite hilarious to watch someone’s perfect shot onto the green get gobbled up.