The 79-year-old lives next to one of the Taieri’s three golf courses, and the chances are, if you have lost a golf ball recently, you will be able to buy it back from The Hospice Shop in Mosgiel.
‘‘The voices carry from the golf course quite easily, and you can usually tell just what's going on.
‘‘A lot of them [the balls] come over the fence and into my paddock.’’
So many in fact, that over the past 12 years, he has collected about 20,000 stray golf balls for the charity, which sells them for about $1 and puts the money towards specialist palliative care for people with terminal illnesses.
He was quite surprised at how many balls came on to his property, considering they had to travel from the golf course, over a two-lane road and a 2m-tall hedge, to reach his paddocks.
Mr Nichol said he started collecting them partly out of necessity, but mostly out of gratitude.
On average, about 32 balls a week ended up on his side of the fence, and if he did not pick them up, they would pile up, he said.
‘‘My wife was in the hospice.
‘‘If this is going to help somebody in that sort of position, I'm happy to do it.
‘‘This is my way of giving back to the hospice, for all the support they gave me and my wife.’’
While he continues to work on his sons’ farms, he spends most rainy days at home, washing golf balls in his laundry tub.
‘‘A lot of people, on a wet day, do their GST, but I clean golf balls.
‘‘It’s my hobby now, I guess. I don't like other people climbing over my fence and pinching them.’’
Mosgiel Hospice Shop manager Anke Hoggett-Schnebeck said the charity was ‘‘extremely grateful’’ for Mr Nichol’s support.
‘‘And it's been continuous support — I mean, we're talking years here, it’s not just recently.
‘‘He's been bringing up those golf balls for years and years, and he's raised thousands of dollars for hospice by doing that.
‘‘So he's helping to fundraise in a big way, and we're extremely grateful for that.’’
