Never Logo Your Balls

Thanks to reader Chris for this Emily Gosden story in The Times detailing £12,000 spent by government ministers on golf balls. 

The top-of-the-range balls have been handed out to wealthy businessmen as part of efforts to promote Britain’s trade links.

The £12,030 bill emerged after a Tory MP ventured into the rough at his Surrey golf course and discovered a golf ball branded UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). Humfrey Malins, MP for Woking, asked the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which funds UKTI, to reveal the full extent of its spending on golf balls.

“It is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Mr Malins, who captains the parliamentary golf team. “To think that the Government has been spending over £4,000 a year on golf balls is quite ridiculous.”

Ministers defended the spending, which they said had been used as “corporate gifts for business leaders at events such as the PGA Merchandising Show in the US”. Businessmen have also been teeing off with government-funded Titleist golf balls distributed at events in Canada, Japan, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and “a small number of occasions in the Middle East”.

Ah, now I know why they were so expensive. Errr...because they had to ship them all over the world!